28 AMERICAN POLICE BEAT: OCTOBER 2017 law enforcement, some of which do not end well. I do not know any police officer who is a licensed psychiatrist or psycholo- gist, although there might be one or two. Despite that law enforce- ment is being forced, time and time again, to deal with those who need and deserve professional care. Many of these people have been abandoned by their families and the govern- ment who should be tak- ing responsibility for their well-being. When these people find themselves in crisis, they lash out at the community that abandoned them. When that happens, who gets called to deal with the problem? W h y , t h e cops, of course. Officers re- spond and do what they can despite having no information about the his- tory of the troubled indi- vidual. Usually it’s a brief and stressful interaction. If the person directs his or her anger, frustration, and hostility at the closest target, which is often the police, responding officers must react. We dread it when we are forced to take harsh action, but we are not sacrificial lambs and we should not pay with our lives for the failures of our society that has an obligation to care for the mentally ill. Most law enforcement agencies have introduced Crisis Intervention Train- ing (CIT) for their officers. The San Francisco PD has done that along with de-es- calation training for officers on the front lines. This training is certainly beneficial, but 40 hours of classroom instruction does not equate to an officer having the skills, knowl- edge and experience of a licensed psychiatrist or psychologist. Recently here in San Francisco, a mentally dis- turbed person entered the parking lot of one of our stations after he saw of- ficers walk out the back door. This individual advanced on the officers with a knife in hand and screamed, “I’m ready to go! Take me!” The officers showed tre- mendous restraint. They called for back-up. Numer- ous officers responded, all using less lethal force to subdue this individual. Two years earlier, an almost identical incident happened at the same sta- tion. Another disturbed individual waited until of- ficers walked into the park- ing lot. Once t h e c o p s were out of the building, the man ap- proached the officers and pointed a gun at them. The officers had no choice but to use deadly force. A note was discovered later on, the suspect ex- pressing his sorrow that he had to put the officers through this ordeal. Sadly, the man wanted to end his own life but he didn’t have the courage to do it by his own hand. The gun, it turns out, was a replica. The City of San Fran- cisco, the State of Califor- nia, and those responsible for their family members’ well-being need to step up. When all else fails and that call comes in to 911, you can’t blame the officers if there is a tragic outcome. In October 2015, Laura’s Law was passed to deal with those mentally ill individuals who need to be controlled in a secure environment. But the law was watered down by one of our local politicians to the point where it is almost useless. In October 2016, San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee announced a plan to have mental health professionals help police officers resolve conflicts with suspects to avoid escalation of force by the police. I was at that press confer- ence and fully supported the plan. To date, I have not seen it in action out in the field where it is desper- ately needed. Now more than ever, we are being forced to deal with individuals who are in need of medical and men- tal health services. Often they are begging for help and direction. We do everything we can, but we are not trained for this work. If we are placed in situ- ations where force must be used on a person who is suffering emotionally, it takes a terrible toll on ev- eryone involved, including the officer. We need to provide more resources for our mental health professionals who have the skills and experi- ence to help the mentally ill. A law enforcement solu- tion for these people often can only make a tragic situation worse. Martin Halloran is the president of the San Francisco Police Officers Association. This individual advanced on the officers with a knife in hand and screamed, “I’m ready to go! Take me!” The officers showed a tremendous restraint. Continued from page one We’re not trained for this A man perched in a tree and a Seattle police officer negotiate. Responding to mental health calls is increasingly challenging for police. (Getty Images) When law enforcement officers have inadequate or no training to deal with the mentally ill, everyone loses APB360.com // 602-497-4606 Asset Tracking | Inventory Management & Audits | Expiration Warning Systems | Training & Education Records | Budget Management | Chain of Custody | Performance Analytics See the results now at APB360.com/LE Can you identify how many radios are issued, and who has them? If you were using APB360 you would know within seconds. Gear is expensive. It costs even more when it goes missing. Intuitively track everything from patrol cars to pepper spray. It’s simple, fast, and robust. Feel the relief of APB360.