Police Mental Illnesses Essay

Micah Jester repeatedly told police officers to kill her in Austin. She was shot by police because she was holding a BB gun that looked like a handgun. Later, authorities determined she was mentally ill. Police officers aren’t trained on how to handle calls that involve mentally ill people. In order to fix it, police officers should undergo a 40 hour training to be able to understand when a person is in a crisis and when they should not be held accountable for their actions.
Mental illnesses are any psychiatric disorder that causes unusual behavior. Some examples of these include depression, anxiety, or schizophrenia. People affected by mental illnesses often do not get the help they need in order to be better. Many things cause cause a mental

Police officers cannot tell when someone is in a crisis because they are not trained on how to handle situations with mental illness or the signs. They often hurt or kill people that are having a mental health crisis when all they need is someone to get them the services that can treat them. This has been happening as long as police have been an active part of the community. In the past, certain police departments, such as Austin Police Department has a specially trained force- the Crisis Intervention Team. They would handle mental health calls and use different techniques such as escalation and speaking in a calm voice to get the person to calm down. Then they do a check up on them for 90 days and advise them for certain help such as therapies or

Police departments would have to hire certain outside professionals such as psychiatrists to train the police officers on how to handle mental health situations or how to recognize the time. Some police departments only train a few specialized members to go on calls with mental health situations to help, but they cannot go on all of the calls. The funds for mental health are not being used correctly. Most funds are going towards mental health institutes or therapies and treatments. Little is going to the police departments. This is important because if we are not spending enough money on the police departments for mental health, then nothing will be