By Bill Zeeble, KERA reporter
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kera/local-kera-578088.mp3
Dallas, TX – Dallas Police say nearly every day, they're called on to face a mentally-ill subject, maybe high on drugs, who's acting out in the streets. In the worst case, the subject dies. Taking a short break in the training program on handling those with mental illness, Senior Corporal Pedro Alonzo recalls one wild encounter.
Pedro Alonzo, Senior Corporal: Guy was completely naked and all of a sudden attacked this person & I had to move in. We wrestled the guy, he calmed down, cuffed him. En route to Lew Sterrett, he kicked me in the back of my head, bites my partner's half his finger off.
Zeeble; The subject - police call them clients - survived, following treatment. That's the goal of every encounter with mentally ill patients, so there's NO injury to the subject, officers, or the public. But they need training to reach that goal more often, and Senior Corporal Herb Cotner's the teacher.
Senior Corporal Herb Cotner: If we don't treat those things right, they can go bad. :11 I've been here a long time. I know it's hard to believe, but we really don't like that. It's not positive. we get hurt.
Zeeble: So, with the cooperation of doctors and mental health officials, the DPD is one of only 5 or so departments in the country offering 40 hours of training to handle the mentally ill. The state only mandates 16.
Communication's key. Having just one officer addressing the person's important, because it's less confusing. A calm voice makes a difference too, says Janie Metzinger, Public Policy Director with the Greater Dallas Mental Health Association.
Janie Metzinger, Public Policy Director, Greater Dallas MHA: The techniques that the officer would use for a person acting out or in a drunken stupor or whatever has the opposite effect when dealing with mental illness. Using a loud voice, those techniques will exacerbate a problem if the person has a mental illness.
Zeeble: Senior Corporal Cotner demonstrates, making me the subject; a schizophrenic, acting erratically in the street, with a knife. Deputy Chief Vincent Golbeck plays the arriving officer after the 9-1-1 call. Cotner mimics a schizophrenics' confusing voice, by talking incessantly in my left ear.
Golbeck,: Sir, what's your name? We got a call here.
Cotner: No no, you can't trust him. No, he's leaning forward.
Golbeck: Your name sir?
Zeeble: Bill.
Golbeck: Bill, what's going on today?
Cotner: No no no no no
Zeeble: Cotner says maybe the subject, any subject, is off his medication. Maybe he's showing symptoms of paranoia or depression. No matter, trust & patience go a long way. The training worked for Officer Mark Rodruigez, who had recently complete the training when he got a suicide call. A woman was at her desk holding a knife to her own throat and a spray can of mace in the other, aimed at anyone approaching.
Officer Mark Rodriguez. While talking with her, all the things I've been taught amazingly popped into my mind. One, using her first name. Also there were key words to use or not use. Main thing, preface them with I. 877/I'm here to help, I don't want you to hurt yourself. Not to be in a hurry. I kind of told her that right off the bat. You and I can talk as long as you want to, I think it was in the morning, I told her I don't get off till 4 in the afternoon.
Zeeble: Half an hour later, Rodriguez says she put the knife down, and let him take to her to Parkland Hospital. Cotner says training won't always pay off, but based on success in other cities, believes this works. Chief David Kunkle said as much at a Congressional field hearing in Dallas last week.
Dallas Police Chief Kunkle: of that we've 825/11We have seen reductions in use of force and shooting incidents and others.
Zeeble: Cotner, and Deputy Chief Golbeck, say the mental health training's only been in place here 7 months. The real test, says Golbeck, may come in the next few months. Incidents involving the mentally ill ten d to rise in warm whether. For KERA 90.1 I'm Bill Zeeble
Bzeeble@Kera.Org