Cops get specialized training to learn to deal with the mentally ill

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http://www.nami.org/template.cfm?Section=Top_Story&template=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=19700

In Memphis, Tennessee after the police fatally shot a man with mental illness the citizens were outraged. The product of this became the Crisis Intervention Team (CIT). Officers with good records and several years of experience request and must be recommended for training as a CIT officer. The officers receive 40 hours of specialized training in recognizing and assisting people with mental illness that they encounter in their day-to-day police work. These officers are prioritized to calls that are known to have someone with mental illness as part of the call for service. Police departments across the United States has emulated this model successfully and significantly reduced the number of people with mental illness that are jailed or even killed by police officers. NAMI supports and encourages every police department to have trained CIT officers.

More at the link.

If a program like this had existed 5 years ago it could have saved me a lot of time and heartache. I had a couple of brushes with the law when I was mentally ill and if the police would have recognized that I was ill I could have gotten help a lot sooner.