Mental Health transports

[PCSD722]

Just wondering who else around the country/world does mental health transports? Here if someone is committed to a state mental hospital it falls to the Sheriff's department to pick the person up, take them to the hearing and transport to the hospital, which takes forever. We did one today, a State Trooper picked her up for something and found out she was big time off her rocker, took her to the hospital and another officer and I ended up transporting her, this started at noon, I got home at 2230. Our shortest trip to a mental ward is 6 hours round trip, the furthest can be 9-10 hours.

On second thought maybe she wasnt all that crazy since she said I was a sweetheart and the Trooper was the angel of love. But damn she smelled BAD, had been living in the woods and cme to our county for this years regional rainbow family gathering.

[Pudge]

Most of the time they are transported by private Ambulance. On occasion we have to transport, but only if they are a resident of the city and we were involved in the evaluation.

[Caveman]

We have civil deputies that do this in our department.
All they do is serve papers, mental transports, evictions..ect.

[Jim1348]

I don't do them anymore, but I did work in our Transport Unit a number of years back and I remember quite well doing those. We, at the Sheriff's Office, typically got involved after the local PD put a 72 hour hold on them and a local hospital adult or adolescent psychiatric unit. We would pick them up in the morning at a facility and transport them to court for hearings and usually back to the facility. It is a very thankless duty of sheriff's offices in Minnesota.

We also would transport from the hospitals to a longer term facility like state hospitals. I don't think I ever had a mental run as far as yours, but I did have an 18 hour day once with a prisoner. Another deputy and I met at 6AM and drove to the Hallock MN jail. By the time we got our prisoner and brought him to our jail it was midnight.

I guess it almost goes without saying, but don't fall into the trap of complacency while doing any kind of transport, either mental or criminal. I have had foot chases with mentally ill patients that have ran from me. The patients can be very dangerous. We typically wore suits or sport coats and slacks because the law prohibits uniformed officers from doing these details. I was happy about that, but they also did not allow us to use restraints, unless there were extenuating circumstances. I did not always handcuff all of my patients that I transported, but I certainly did some and got by okay.

The other issue that concerned me is many of the facilities allowed the mental patients to go out and smoke cigarettes. So here you go to pick up a patient and they may have cigarettes, matches, lighters, and God knows what else on there person. What I used to like was the law didn't require them to attend certain hearings, so I would call ahead to the facility and if the staff told me the patient didn't want to go I cancelled the run. Sometimes they didn't refuse until you were at the facility and then I got the hell out of there before they changed there mind.

We also would get court orders to go out in the community and pick up people from their homes and take them back into custody on mental holds. It can be very dangerous and challenging work. In a way it was like working warrants, but in some respects more dangerous because a lot of the mopes we arrest on warrants know they do a night or two in jail and out they go. With the MIs (mentally ill), they sometimes think that they are going away for the rest of their lives, (and sometimes they actually are). In fact, in that regards MIs are similar to juvenile arrest because many juveniles view spending a few days in kiddie jail as the end of the world as they know it. I mean no MySpace, no iPod, no cell phone I mean jail is so inconvenient. Adults, on the other hand, if they are not mentally ill, can usually look ahead and realize that they are in jail for a relatively short period of time in the grand scheme of things.

Like Caveman referred to, I am now a civil deputy and all I do is evictions and serve papers. I have found it to be much more challenging than patrol work. Sure just serving a summons and complaint is pretty boring, but then so is taking the umpeenth theft report of the day. I have ran into more guns and knives in civil directed at me than I did in patrol. I went to an eviction this summer and the womkan was mentally ill and waas wielding a knife. She was Tased and took the ride to the nice hospital for a little dose of Thorazine (AKA "liquid handcuffs").

I went a few years back to take two kids away from an internet porn queen and she came out of the house with a semi-automatic pistol. I didn't shoot her, but it was close.

I also went to an eviction a couple of summers ago at a meth cookers trail and his Pit Bull Mastiff mix breed dog bit my left hand. Unfortunately "Fluffy" passed away very suddenly and unexpectedly from lead poisoning courtesy of Dr. Glock.

Oh, and a nearby Minneapolis cop was shot and killed a couple of years ago by elderly mentally ill woman who had a handgun hidden in her crotch.

I don't mean to bore you guys with my stories, but it is very easy to become complacent around "patients". You will get doctors, nurses, attorneys, judges, even fellow cops that will tell you, "Oh, well there just sick, don't treat them like a criminal." I will tell you to keep your guard up because you never know.

[Terminator]

I used to do them. I enjoyed them. I found that we had quite a bit in common. I never had trouble transporting a looney toon to the looney bin, but I always employed safety tactics, and recognized the potential danger.

[Pudge]

I don't do them anymore, but I did work in our Transport Unit a number of years back and I remember quite well doing those. We, at the Sheriff's Office, typically got involved after the local PD put a 72 hour hold on them and a local hospital adult or adolescent psychiatric unit. We would pick them up in the morning at a facility and transport them to court for hearings and usually back to the facility. It is a very thankless duty of sheriff's offices in Minnesota.

We also would transport from the hospitals to a longer term facility like state hospitals. I don't think I ever had a mental run as far as yours, but I did have an 18 hour day once with a prisoner. Another deputy and I met at 6AM and drove to the Hallock MN jail. By the time we got our prisoner and brought him to our jail it was midnight.

I guess it almost goes without saying, but don't fall into the trap of complacency while doing any kind of transport, either mental or criminal. I have had foot chases with mentally ill patients that have ran from me. The patients can be very dangerous. We typically wore suits or sport coats and slacks because the law prohibits uniformed officers from doing these details. I was happy about that, but they also did not allow us to use restraints, unless there were extenuating circumstances. I did not always handcuff all of my patients that I transported, but I certainly did some and got by okay.

The other issue that concerned me is many of the facilities allowed the mental patients to go out and smoke cigarettes. So here you go to pick up a patient and they may have cigarettes, matches, lighters, and God knows what else on there person. What I used to like was the law didn't require them to attend certain hearings, so I would call ahead to the facility and if the staff told me the patient didn't want to go I cancelled the run. Sometimes they didn't refuse until you were at the facility and then I got the hell out of there before they changed there mind.

We also would get court orders to go out in the community and pick up people from their homes and take them back into custody on mental holds. It can be very dangerous and challenging work. In a way it was like working warrants, but in some respects more dangerous because a lot of the mopes we arrest on warrants know they do a night or two in jail and out they go. With the MIs (mentally ill), they sometimes think that they are going away for the rest of their lives, (and sometimes they actually are). In fact, in that regards MIs are similar to juvenile arrest because many juveniles view spending a few days in kiddie jail as the end of the world as they know it. I mean no MySpace, no iPod, no cell phone I mean jail is so inconvenient. Adults, on the other hand, if they are not mentally ill, can usually look ahead and realize that they are in jail for a relatively short period of time in the grand scheme of things.

Like Caveman referred to, I am now a civil deputy and all I do is evictions and serve papers. I have found it to be much more challenging than patrol work. Sure just serving a summons and complaint is pretty boring, but then so is taking the umpeenth theft report of the day. I have ran into more guns and knives in civil directed at me than I did in patrol. I went to an eviction this summer and the womkan was mentally ill and waas wielding a knife. She was Tased and took the ride to the nice hospital for a little dose of Thorazine (AKA "liquid handcuffs").

I went a few years back to take two kids away from an internet porn queen and she came out of the house with a semi-automatic pistol. I didn't shoot her, but it was close.

I also went to an eviction a couple of summers ago at a meth cookers trail and his Pit Bull Mastiff mix breed dog bit my left hand. Unfortunately "Fluffy" passed away very suddenly and unexpectedly from lead poisoning courtesy of Dr. Glock.

Oh, and a nearby Minneapolis cop was shot and killed a couple of years ago by elderly mentally ill woman who had a handgun hidden in her crotch.

I don't mean to bore you guys with my stories, but it is very easy to become complacent around "patients". You will get doctors, nurses, attorneys, judges, even fellow cops that will tell you, "Oh, well there just sick, don't treat them like a criminal." I will tell you to keep your guard up because you never know.

Not boring at all. Serves as a good reminder that every aspect of our job is dangerous.

[Jackalope]

Oregon doesn't have any mental health facilities. We deal with lunatics by sending them to serve in the Legislature.

[PCSD722]

Like Caveman referred to, I am now a civil deputy and all I do is evictions and serve papers.


Thats kinda my job description I guess. I am no longer a C/O, have moved to Home Confinement and also do paper service, bailiff, transports etc...
Each transport I do on a mental health order I treat the same as any other person i transport, searched and cuffed, leg hobbles if needed. I have had family members, Dr's, Nurses and other officers say "oh you dont need to cuff him/her because they are fine just having problems" My reply is fine then you transport them.

I dont do it to be mean or hateful, I do it so I can go home after the trip is over. People are people, no matter what reason we have for dealing with them...you never know exactly what they are or are not going to do. Especially if I am driving one 4 hours one way to the hospital, which I may add...sucks, except for the fact that the county is going to buy me a nice steak when I get where I am going

[lewisipso]

Louisiana law that only the Sheriffs Office's transport EDP's. Us or private ambulance if they are not combative. Municipalities do not.

[kjlaw]

Lewis hit it right on for us but we were finally able to get the local hospital to have private security gaurds sit with these subjects at the local hospital while they wait for a bed in a mental facility. This is one of the bigger problems left over from Katrina as there are just not enough beds for EDP's since the closing of Charity hospital in New Orleans. Many people who would have been admitted prior to the storm are now held for 72 hours at the local hospital and then released back to society.

[KaiGywer]

All of ours go by ambulance. Strap them to the cot and off they go. Our nearest psych ward is about an hour away, so not bad.

[gozling]

Our policy is if it is an Exparte Order by the courts, the family gives us the envelope un opened and we open it then transport the person to that facility. The mentally ill person is handcuffed and searched prior to transport.

If we respond to a call of a mentally ill person in crisis, we take them to the nearest receiving facility. Again they are cuffed and searched prior to transport.

If the mentally ill person has any physical illness, is extremely elderly then a two man unit transports. One officer rides in the ambulance and the other follows behind in a patrol car.

[213th]

I don't know all about it, but I know that Sullivan County Sherrif's Deputies in Sullivan County, New Hampshire transport to the state hospital.