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THREAD: This story makes me think A LOT about the time a local police department held a "Shoot or Don't Shoot" mock training event and invited members of the press. In fact, I've thought about the experience a lot in the 3 years since. https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/3azkeb/police-are-the-first-to-respond-to-mental-health-crises-they-shouldnt-be?utm_campaign=sharebutton
The department never officially said why they had the event, but I guessed at the time that they wanted us to understand how stressful and scary the job could be. Maybe we'd remember the experience the next time we covered a story about an officer shooting someone.
Myself and maybe 5 or 6 other local reporters participated. We each had a different scenario set up for us, and we were suited up in a police uniform, a bulletproof vest and a gun with fake bullets (I think they may have been plastic or rubber, I wasn't hit with one so IDK)
Another reporter was hit with one of them in her scenario, which if memory serves was an armed robbery. I do remember that every single reporter fired their guns; I was the only one who didn't. In all of our simulations, we "responded" to the incidents with a team of officers.
My simulation was a "domestic incident" — a man threatening to kill himself. When the simulation started, officers were yelling and I couldn't hear what the man was saying. He approached me & I couldn't tell what he was saying — maybe the adrenaline clouded my ability to think.
I've never been trained in de-escalation. I didn't know what to do. I should mention that the man playing the role was Black. I remember for a split second my hand hovered over the gun as I backed away, but then I sort of cowered or tried to take cover as he approached me.
The next thing I knew, he pulled an iPhone out of his pocket and asked me to call his pastor. I said yes, took the phone, and the simulation ended.
The other reporters were allowed to stand outside the training area with the other officers and watch the simulations. One reporter later told me that when I tried to take cover instead of pulling out my gun, an officer said I "would have already been dead."
It seems the simulation was designed so that I would instinctively shoot this man to protect myself as he pulled something out of his pocket, that at the time I didn't know was an iPhone. Again, I was the only reporter who didn't pull out my gun or fire it.
The simulations were recorded on our body worn cameras, and each reporter who participated got a copy of the video of their simulation. Except for me. Mine apparently had some problem "uploading to the Cloud." They told me they would send me a copy if they ever got it to upload.
I don't know whether they did, because I got laid off a few weeks later. But I've often wondered how many times police respond to mental health crises and pull their guns on people who are experiencing emotional distress. How many of those people do cops shoot?
This @VICE article gives some statistics on that. "A survey by the Police Executive Research Forum found that officers received an average of eight hours dedicated to "Crisis Intervention Training" (CIT)—a mental health training program with promising but mixed results"
"New recruits spend nearly 60 hours learning how to use guns," the story says.
And, "Police also don't have a great track record of de-escalating situations with mentally ill people, who are 16 times more likely to be killed by police officers." cont. in thread
And, "Police also don't have a great track record of de-escalating situations with mentally ill people, who are 16 times more likely to be killed by police officers." cont. in thread
"One in four people killed by police in 2015 had a serious mental illness, a Washington Post investigation found. In the first six months of 2015, on average, the police shot and killed someone having a mental health crisis every 36 hours, the Washington Post found."
"And when mental illness intersects with racial prejudices, it’s a sinister combination," writes @shayla__love
“It’s often said that the criminal justice system is the mental health system for Black men," said Gregg Bloche, a health policy expert and a professor at Georgetown.
“It’s often said that the criminal justice system is the mental health system for Black men," said Gregg Bloche, a health policy expert and a professor at Georgetown.
