Dealing with mentally ill a police focus

By Amanda Codispoti, The Roanoke Times, Roanoke, VA

In 1987, a Memphis, Tenn., police officer shot and killed a paranoid schizophrenic man who had cut himself with a knife and was threatening others.

Last week, Roanoke police had a similar encounter. Two officers shot and killed Robert Douglas Mattox, who was coming at them with a knife, police said. Mattox's family later said he had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.

The shootings are similar, but 22 years after the Memphis incident, officers and mental health advocates say police are better equipped to respond to calls involving the mentally disabled.

The public outcry in Memphis led to a community task force that developed the Crisis Intervention Team, a partnership between law enforcement and mental heath organizations that, among other things, provides training for officers.

The training has been adopted by police agencies throughout the country, including those in Roanoke, Roanoke County and the New River Valley.

But law enforcement officials and mental health professionals agree that there are still going to be situations when lethal force can't be avoided.

"It's not a matter of training, it's a matter of the people and the situation ... that causes these tragic situations to occur," said Roanoke County Sheriff Gerald Holt, who sits on the Virginia Commission on Mental Health Law Reform.

The officers who encountered Mattox had to think about their safety before anything else, Holt said.

"If the officer gets killed, he's going to be just as dead if he got killed by a mentally ill person," he said.

Gail Burruss, director of adult services for Blue Ridge Behavioral Healthcare, also said that officers have to draw the line between helping a mentally ill person and protecting themselves.

"There's mental illness, and then there's behavior that is threatening," she said. "Police officers are in a very, very difficult situation in terms of having to make split-second decisions."

Members of Mattox's family were upset with the officers' actions and said last week that he would not have harmed the officers. They also questioned whether police did everything they could to prevent the situation from escalating.

CIT is a weeklong session that gives officers an understanding of the major mental illnesses and behaviors associated with them. Officers are introduced to mentally disabled patients and their families, who tell them about their past encounters with authorities. They also learn about intervention techniques and community resources.

Not every officer in Roanoke goes through the CIT training, but all officers do complete crisis training mandated by the Department of Criminal Justice Services. Recruits receive the mandated training before they are sworn in as officers, and officers are retrained at least every three years, department spokeswoman Aisha Johnson said.

The two officers involved in last week's shooting and a third who did not fire his gun had all recently completed some type of crisis training, Johnson said. She would not say whether they knew about Mattox's mental illness because that is part of the department's investigation.

The department also has a policy to guide officers through their interactions with the mentally disabled and help ensure that they are treated fairly.

The nine-page policy recommends that officers remain calm and use clear language, indicate a willingness to help and announce actions before initiating them.

It also says that officers can take a mentally ill person into custody only if they have committed a crime, when a court order has been issued to commit the person to a medical or mental health facility, or when the person is at risk of harming himself or others.

Memphis police have reported that since implementing CIT, they've responded to fewer calls for hostage situations or people who have barricaded themselves, said Maj. Tim Canady, CIT coordinator for the department.

Roanoke police also have had successes that they attribute to training, Capt. Curtis Davis said.

The most recent example happened about a week ago, when the department's tactical response team was called to a house where a man was threatening to hurt himself with a knife. Officers were able to talk with him and bring him out safely, Davis said.

"Our number one objective is to protect and serve the public," Davis said. "A person with a mental illness is part of the public."