[NYAPRS Enews] Smith: NYPD Should Adopt Crisis Intervention Team Model

Tue Apr 6 07:19:21 EDT 2010

NYAPRS Note: A powerful appeal for long overdue change in New York
City's police policies regarding people with psychiatric disabilities by
Alexandra Smith, who has help support the  work of  Rights for
Imprisoned People with Psychiatric Disabilities and Mental Health
Alternatives to Solitary Confinement. 

Police New Need Approach to Deal with the Mentally Ill
by Alexandra Smith    Gotham Gazette  April 6, 2010

In 2008, New York City police arrived at the Bedford Stuyvesant home of
Iman Morales, a 35-year old man with a psychiatric diagnosis. Distraught
and naked, Morales had climbed out the apartment window and onto a
storefront ledge. The encounter ended when one of the officers aimed his
Taser at Morales, who then plummeted
<http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2008/09/25/Man-dies-in-fall-after-shot-with
-stun-gun/UPI-53051222344474/>  onto the concrete 10 feet below and
suffered a fatal head injury.

The officers on the scene were, like all New York Police Department
officers, armed with guns, but no proper training or tactics to diffuse
a situation with a person with mental illness. Later that week, the
police lieutenant who gave the order took
<http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-10-02-nyc-taser_N.htm>  his
own life.

In response to Morales' death, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly
responded
<http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/29/after-taser-death-kelly-em
phasizes-training/?pagemode=print>  by saying the NYPD would increase
training for police officers -- but the change was purely in the
quantity of instruction, not the quality. Kelly said the additional
training would be "in essence, going over the training they've
received." 

An Inadequate Response

Going over the basics is not enough. There continue to be a shocking
number of incidents where the New York City police have encountered a
person in a state of psychiatric crisis, and rather than de-escalating
the situation, their untrained reactions and poor decisions have left
the person injured or even dead.

The police department's current policing practices are at best
inadequate, and at worst ineffective. A refresher course on an
insufficient model does not change direction and certainly has not
prevented people with mental illness from being criminalized or killed.
A true shift in policy is needed, with the police spending more time
with people with mental illness so that they can be treated with the
dignity and respect that they deserve.

Sadly, that has not happened, and the Morales encounter remains not far
from the norm. Two years after his death, the New York's policing model
still includes no distinct response system for its officers to safely
interact with people with psychiatric disabilities when they are in a
state of crisis.

Olga Negron, Morales' mother, still lives with the loss of her son. She
says that she misses him "so much -- my heart hurts everyday." She knows
that her son's death was avoidable -- if the police department only knew
how to protect both New York's psychiatrically disabled and the many
police officers who interact when them on a daily basis.

What Other Cities Do

Luckily there is a solution -- for Negron, and for the New Yorkers with
psychiatric disabilities. Eighty cities and counties around the country
have taken on new policing models to make interactions between police
and people with mental illness safer for all involved and reduce
arrests. Crisis Intervention Teams
<http://www.nami.org/Template.cfm?Section=CIT2>  connect residents to
social services early in cities large and small around the country --
including Los Angeles, Chicago, and Houston -- and keeping people who
need treatment out of jail and prison.

Rather than killing or injuring people with mental illness, Crisis
Intervention Teams offer an opportunity to help provide treatment and a
therapeutic environment to individuals in need of support. While New
York's prison population is decreasing, the percentage of prisoners with
mental illness has risen. The Crisis Intervention Teams provide a humane
solution to the unjust punishment of people with mental illness.

Crisis Intervention Teams require police officers and 911 dispatchers to
receive 40 hours of training that teaches them to recognize signs of
mental illness so they can identify symptoms in individuals. The
programs also cover de-escalation techniques, so that police and
dispatchers can refocus on diverting individuals into treatment. 

In some places, only Crisis Intervention Team police officers respond to
crisis situations, but in others, like the model in Westchester County,
a social worker or peer specialist works out of the precinct and
co-responds with police officers. The team model works with self-
selected staff, so the experienced workers have a deep and skilled
understanding and sensitivity to mental illness from the get go.

In addition to training, Crisis Intervention Teams forge stronger
relationships between local precincts and community hospitals and mental
health centers. The process of admitting someone to a treatment facility
is streamlined so that the police don't wait long hours in an emergency
room and so that people who are in need of treatment get it immediately.

Who Not Here?

On Feb. 24, experts from Westchester' Crisis Intervention Teams came to
New York City to share the success of their model and its ability to
increase the safety of the community, police officers and people in
crisis, and aid recovery for people with mental illness.

Unfortunately though, the New York City Police Department continued its
pattern of refusing to hear proposed solutions or to adopt these new
models despite their proven effectiveness in deescalating crises.
Department representatives did not show up for the roundtable, organized
by Rights for Imprisoned People with Psychiatric Disabilities, or RIPPD,
a grassroots organization of formerly incarcerated people with
psychiatric disabilities, advocates and family members.

Recently, community residents and members of Rights for
<http://www.rippd.org>  Imprisoned People with Psychiatric Disabilities
gathered outside the 79th police precinct, where Morales died, and
demanded: How can the New York Police Department not implement this
program?

Too much is at stake. The list of New Yorkers with mental illness harmed
by police unprepared to help them is too long, and includes Earl Black,
Rodney Mason, Alan Zelencic, Stephanie Lindboe, Khiel Coppin, Gilberto
Blanco, and David Kostovski.

The New York Police Department must do the right thing for New Yorkers
with mental illness, their family and friends -- and their own officers.
Until the police modernize their tactics, every encounter with a person
in psychiatric crisis will continue to be a chance for avoidable
tragedy.

Alexandra Smith is a criminal justice advocate at the Urban Justice
<http://www.urbanjustice.org/ujc/projects/mental.html>  Center's Mental
Health Project and a member of Rights for Imprisoned People with
Psychiatric Disabilities. For more information visit Rights for
Imprisoned People <http://www.gothamgazette.com/?www.rippd.org>  with
Disabilities.

http://www.gothamgazette.com/article/crimeandsafety/20100406/4/3235

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