Up here in N. Texas, and around the country, society seems to constantly be attacked these days. From COVID to mass shootings to rampant racism to the police vs. black citizens issue, I feel like my head is spinning. I’m a critical thinker, and I try to understand both (or more) sides of an issue. But some of these events just have me scratching my head.
I was a therapist for over 10 years, so when I heard about 26-year-old Marvin Scott’s death and that it may have all started with a mental health issue, my ears perked up a little higher than “just” being disgusted that another black man died while in custody.
Scott died while in custody at the jail in Collin County on March 14 after being arrested for possessing less than 2 oz. of marijuana. Texas Rangers are investigating, while Scott’s family presses for answers.
The Arlington Police Department (APD) claims that 1 in 10 of the calls they receive is regarding a mental health issue.
I know personally that police agencies provide 40 hours of Crisis Intervention Techniques (CIT) per year because of my years of giving my time to an agency and my own training in two Citizen Police Academies, which gave me the opportunity to volunteer to help with police training. Usually, I had to role-play someone who had a mental health issue. They’d give me a scenario and I’d play it to the best of my ability (this is where my therapist training came in handy).
I played a depressed person, a bipolar person in a manic stage, someone with schizophrenia and someone high on drugs. The mania was the hardest for me because I basically had to ramble on with quick speech about whatever, and sometimes I’d run out of things to say. I liked this training because I believe with all my heart that first responders need to learn how to handle crises like these, so that more folks can get the help they need instead of just being hauled to jail.
In these scenarios, there was a “primary” officer, who usually approached the person first, and a “secondary” officer, who may end up relating to the individual in a more effective way, serves as a backup for the primary and helps with anything that’s needed during the interaction.
I had many a secondary officer step in for various reasons, but between the two of them, they usually got the job done. I can only remember one time in which both officers didn’t know what to do, so they got insulting and aggressive (I didn’t get hurt but being in a chair and having two cops come toward you is a bit intimidating). Fortunately, I got to give feedback to all of the officers I interacted with, based on how their actions made me feel. Even though I didn’t have a mental illness, the way people feel about how others treat them is crucial information.
I’ve been on several ride-alongs, in which I was paired with a patrol officer on either day or night shifts, allowed me to watch anything from a speeding/out-of-date inspection stop to recovering a stolen vehicle (and catching the bad guys, thanks to the K-9 Unit) to a mental health crisis call. The latter involved a woman who was threatening to kill herself and had barricaded herself in her garage. In order to prevent startling her, units drove with their lights off and parked a block away. They coordinated with each other and quietly approached her home.
This call had a happy ending because the woman eventually opened the garage door and chose to be transported to the hospital via ambulance.
APD has noted that many of crisis calls are from individuals that they are familiar with, as they call semi-regularly. They aren’t committing any crimes and may or may not need to go to a hospital. These are calls that the trained officers respond to, especially if they are familiar with that person.
Hopefully, more agencies will offer extra training and resources that will make sure that cases like Scott’s drastically decrease or are handled in the right way more often.