Sgt. Daniel Stump of Springettsbury Township was one representative from York County who traveled to Memphis, Tenn. to see how a crisis intervention team interacts with people who have a mental illness. Police are often the first responders to someone in crisis, and officers, including Stump, want to receive specialized training in how to better handle situations. (Daily Record/Sunday News -- Jason Plotkin)

When a family needs to have a loved one committed -- because he or she is severely mentally ill and in need of care -- the job falls to the police in York and Adams counties.

Sometimes, when police show up with a mental health warrant, a person willingly goes to the hospital.

But sometimes, local chiefs said, a person resists. Sometimes, he or she is not taking medicine. Sometimes, the person thinks the police are there to do harm or are part of a conspiracy. Sometimes the person will fight.

It's not uncommon for officers to use pepper spray, said Northern York County Regional Police Chief Carl Segatti. Officers have hit people with batons, wrestled them to the ground and handcuffed them.

The person is ill. If someone were to suffer a heart attack, you wouldn't take her to prison, said Sam Cochran.

While with the Memphis Police Department, Cochran helped start a unit to handle mentally ill people in crisis. Teams of officers are trained to respond to the illness. Arrests in Memphis have fallen, and more people are ushered into recovery.
Seeing the problem, departments in York County want to adopt a similar model.

But training is expensive.

Moreover, Tennessee's laws for handling the mentally ill are more lenient than those in Pennsylvania, which often give officers two options:

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Forcibly commit a person or arrest him. Memphis has more treatment options and more treatment facilities.

Without those, a new model might not succeed. But, authorities said, it's worth trying.

Until real change can happen, Segatti said, the law will limit options for police.

"Is this how these situations should be handled?" Segatti asked. "I think we can all agree it's not."
 
Memphis model

The Memphis Model started in the late 1980s after public outcry

A man was threatening to jump off a bridge onto a busy highway below in Memphis, Tenn. Crisis Intervention Team officers with the Memphis Police Department used their specialized training to get the man to walk away safely. (Daily Record/Sunday News -- Jason Plotkin)
over the police shooting of a mentally ill man who was cutting himself with a knife.

The idea was to be able to train officers to handle the crisis as it's occurring rather than waiting for mental health professionals to arrive.

Officers learn how to calm the person, call relatives to help or summon a mobile crisis unit so counselors can make an assessment at the scene, said Maj. Tim Canady, coordinator for the team.

In Memphis, police also can drive someone to the Crisis Assessment Center, where medical professionals can determine whether the person can be involuntarily committed.

Police can go back to work within 15 to 30 minutes, said Dr. Randolph Dupont, who also helped to develop the Crisis Intervention Team.

Six representatives from York County traveled to Memphis in April for a two-day overview. They witnessed how police, health care employees, mental health advocates, and the community respond to a crisis to help those in time of need.

They want to return for the 40-hour training, but right now, they don't have the money, officials said.

"I'm sold 100 percent on it, and I'm going to do whatever I can to get it off the ground," Southern Regional Police Chief James Childs said.
 
Community connections

Springettsbury Township Police Sgt. Daniel Stump witnessed how a call can work during his ride-along with a Crisis Intervention Team officer in April.

A man who was drinking, not taking medicine for his paranoid schizophrenia and distraught over the death of a family member, called 911 for help.

The officer responded and asked the man questions and determined that he would be able to help himself.

Would he be willing to stop drinking? Yes. Would he be willing to take his medicine at a set time? Yes. Would he be willing to eat something and drink water? Yes.

Then the officer asked a neighbor to check on the man to ensure that he took his medication.

"He knew he needed to take his medicine," Stump said. "He needed encouragement, I'd almost say."

He and York City Police Detective Dana Ward noticed how the officers made connections with people in the community.

Sometimes, the officers would let family members of loved ones

Memphis police officers who are specially trained in dealing with the mentally ill develop a rapport with the community. Here an officer talks with two women about intervention for another person. (Daily Record/Sunday News -- Jason Plotkin)
know their work schedules. The officer Ward spent time with did that for an elderly woman who sometimes has trouble controlling a child with mental illness.

The officer told her that if he's not working, she should call for another Crisis Intervention Team officer.

Ward said the program would help patrol officers on the street.

"Why throw a mentally ill person in jail when all the person needs is to get back on his medicine and to get some medical help?" Ward said.
 
A new plan

Childs said he envisions a local Crisis Intervention Team working in a similar fashion to the countywide Quick Response Team or Drug Task Force. Officers throughout the county would be trained and could help neighboring departments on a call.

The problem, though, is a lack of money.

Childs will become president of the Pennsylvania Chiefs of Police Association as well as the local association this summer. He has a goal.

"Ultimately, I would like to see every department in York County have one officer trained in CIT," he said. "That's what I'm shooting for."
 
Is it enough?

In Tennessee, police can take a person to the hospital for a commitment if he or she simply makes a comment about committing suicide, Canady, coordinator for the Crisis Intervention Team in Memphis, said. In Pennsylvania, though, a person must take a step toward suicide in order to be committed.

"The mental health law in Pennsylvania is in need of some repair work," said Daniel Marguccio, police coordinator for the Laural Highlands Region Crisis Intervention Team.

Laurel Highlands has found success despite the difference in laws and a lack of a specialized crisis center.

Two people were arrested in about a year, said Wendy Stewart, executive director of the National Alliance for Mental Illness in Cambria County. Two people with mental illnesses and one officer were injured.

Marguccio, police coordinator for the team, credits police working closely with a mobile crisis unit and the rapport officers have made with people with mental illness.

Police aren't engaging in as much physical confrontation as they used to, and it's helped to lower their liability, he said.

Cochran, though, stresses that the success of pre-jail diversionary program relies on more than just police training. It needs the supports in the community -- from the hospitals to mental health advocates to people with mental illness.

"You have to have a system in place to address these areas," he said.