By allowing ads to appear on this site, you support the local businesses who, in turn, support great journalism.
How law enforcement agencies are training officers to deal with people in crisis
11242019 TRAINING
Wallet cards handed out by the National Alliance on Mental Illness of Hall County provide advice for communicating with someone in crisis who has a psychiatric illness. - photo by Nick Watson
It is an almost guaranteed certainty for a law officer: Encountering a person having a mental crisis. “Whether it be substance abuse, mental health or the combination. … It’s commonplace enough that there’s not a deputy on patrol that’s been on patrol any length of time that hasn’t gone on these calls,” said Sgt. Stephen Wilbanks of the Hall County Sheriff’s Office.