Police Too Often Lack Mental Illness Training

Police Too Often Lack Mental Illness Training

NYAPRS Note: The following article highlights the nationally acclaimed contributions Memphis Police Crisis Unit Coordinator Sam Cochrane has made in improved police training and responsiveness to people with psychiatric disabilities. Major Cochrane will be a featured plenary speaker at this fall's NYAPRS Annual Conference, to be held September 29-October 1 at the Nevele Grande Hotel in Ellenville, NY. For more details, go to http://www.nyaprs.org/Pages/ConferenceInfo.cfm.

Experts: Cops Too Often Lack Training on Mental Illness

Death of man shot by deputies in Morgan County reflects larger problem, mental health officials say

by John O'Neill and Tammy Webber June 23, 2004

MONROVIA, Ind. -- It wasn't the first time sheriff's deputies had been asked to take John Montgomery to a mental health facility. His parents had sought such court orders at least 10 times.

But June 14, at a home near Monrovia, things went very wrong. Montgomery, 29, was fatally wounded in a scenario mental health advocates say is all too common when law enforcement officers deal with the mentally ill.

Law enforcement officers must resist the urge to wield weapons and must instead try to calm the situation, said Scott Cleveland, an attorney for the Mental Health Association in Indiana.

"I think you have to get people to understand that when you deal with a disease of the mind, you're dealing with symptoms that include paranoia, exaggerated actions and impaired judgment," Cleveland said.

"The last thing, it seems to me, you want to do is go charging in John Wayne-style with Tasers or weapons drawn and try to drag them out."

Many Indiana police officers, though, lack adequate training to handle such encounters -- a situation that has led to the use of deadly force against people who can't control their actions, advocacy groups say.

Even so, Robert and Dolores Montgomery have high praise for officers who had dealt with their son in the past. John Montgomery was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 1997.

Just last month, Morgan County deputies went to the home on a similar court order. The officer in charge that time did a great job, Robert Montgomery said.

"He talked to John. He was very friendly," said Robert Montgomery.

Things didn't go that way on June 14, and the Montgomerys want to know why.

Sheriff Robert Garner said when deputies encountered Montgomery in the home, he began screaming and swinging a 3-foot-long metal clamp.

The clamp knocked nonlethal stun-guns, known as "Tasers," out of the hands of the deputies, Garner said, prompting a third deputy to shoot Montgomery.

He died Sunday night at Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis.

The Montgomerys live in Greenwood. John Montgomery had been staying at a home near Monrovia owned by his mother, who inherited it from her parents.

Tuesday afternoon, sitting in the room where the shooting occurred, the Montgomerys discussed what could have gone wrong and why they have more questions than answers at this point.

Before their son died, they said, he denied attacking the officers. And, they added, certain things in the room are inconsistent with what the police have told them about what happened.

"This stuff doesn't add up," Dolores Montgomery said.

Garner said the investigation is continuing and should be complete in five to 10 days.

"You never know what you're going to deal with," in such situations, Garner said. "Sometimes it goes from bad to worse -- or, from good to bad."

Still, situations involving mentally ill people cannot all be handled the same, said Maj. Sam Cochran, coordinator of the crisis intervention team of the Memphis, Tenn., police department and a nationally known expert on the topic.

"It's always a case-by-case situation," Cochran said. "You can't make guarantees; you have to be flexible. Sometimes, whether they're mentally ill or not, you may have to shoot."

It is unclear how deputies approached Montgomery, but their actions will be reviewed, Garner said.

The officer who fired, Steve Hoffman, has been returned to duty, Garner said Tuesday. Hoffman has been on the force for 11/2 years and has never been disciplined.

Garner says the department will determine whether deadly force was justified by considering if the officer believed he or his colleagues risked death or serious injury.

Cleveland said he still wonders why Montgomery is dead, especially since deputies knew going in that he had a mental illness.

"You have to be willing to be patient," he said. "It's just as easy to back out once they saw the club and try to communicate.

"It's easy to second-guess the police, but how did they get close enough with the Tasers for John to knock them out of their hands? It just seems to me to be sloppy police work."

Robert Montgomery agrees.

"I personally think it was a horrible accident as a result of poor training and poor decisions," he said.

But changes are under way in Indiana to reduce the number of deadly encounters.

A state law that takes effect July 1 requires that all new recruits receive six hours of training in dealing with the mentally ill, while in-service officers will receive two hours of training a year.

The current class of 110 recruits at the Indiana Law Enforcement Training Academy in Plainfield is the first to undergo the more extensive training, said Lt. David Younce.

As part of the training, parents of the mentally ill came in to talk about their children and urged police to treat them with as much patience as possible.

"It puts a whole different perspective on things," Younce said.

And police departments in some cities, including Fort Wayne and Indianapolis, have established crisis intervention teams -- groups of specially trained officers who can be called to help defuse tense situations with mentally ill people.

But it requires patience, listening skills and an understanding of how mentally ill people act during a psychotic episode, said Capt. Dottie Davis, director of training at the Fort Wayne Police Academy

The city's police department three years ago became the first in Indiana to establish a crisis intervention team, and now 80 of the department's 421 officers are trained in intervention.

Seven other law-enforcement agencies in Indiana now have or are establishing teams, Davis said.

Fort Wayne's program was in response to an outcry from local mental health groups after police shot and killed a man who was cutting himself with a butcher knife, and after a 16-year-old mentally ill youth was struck and killed by a car after being briefly detained, then released by police.

Since then, the team has had almost 2,000 calls for service and less than 2 percent of the mentally ill people were taken to jail or prison; most instead received psychiatric help, Davis said.

Louise Pyers knows how tough it can be for officers. In 1997, the Connecticut woman's son, who was suffering from severe depression, goaded officers into shooting him, Pyers said. Her son lived, and Pyers established The Connecticut Alliance to Benefit Law Enforcement to advocate better training for officers.

"This is a really, really tough issue because police are put in a very difficult position in many of these cases and, unless you are there, it's very hard to make a judgment of right or wrong," she said.

"But the right type of training teaches officers how to slow the situation down and how to defuse it. If you are able to go in in a nonthreatening way, that's the key to the whole thing."

That approach might have saved her son, Dolores Montgomery said Tuesday.

Now, when she's not busy planning his funeral, she and her husband spend time at a maple tree outside their Greenwood home. John planted it there for Mother's Day 18 years ago.

"I just feel close to him there," she said.

Source: Indianaopolis Star

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Last Updated on 07/26/04 webmaster@namiscc.org

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