GEORGETOWN, Ky. (LEX 18) — The pandemic has shone a light on the growing mental health crisis and at the receiving end are law enforcement officers answering calls for help.
The Issue
For every call they answer, The American Psychological Association estimates at least 20% involve a mental health or substance abuse crisis.
Lt. Mitch Lair has worked for Georgetown Police Department since 2015. He says the difference since he first started is clear.
“I've seen an increase since my time here. I would say, since probably COVID, a tremendous increase," said Lair.
As a leader of his department’s community mental health team, Lair regularly sees the need the community is facing.
“Some of them have been more serious than others. Obviously, we're starting to see people that are slipping through some cracks, as far as maybe they don't have a support team around them, family members or friends around them that are able to help and assist them,” explained Lair.
Not every time, but most of their calls categorized as crisis intervention receive wraparound services from their community mental health team. Because many of their officers are trained in crisis intervention response, Lair says there is almost always someone with that knowledge at the scene.
“Based on the skills that we can use to understand some of these disorders and understand how to best de-escalate and talk to these folks, it helps mitigate that critical incident where someone gets hurt or an officer gets hurt, or it just makes that situation 10 times worse. No one's benefiting from that,” said Lair.
The uptick they have seen is being echoed across Kentucky.
Of the departments LEX 18 reached out to, Richmond and Lexington police are also seeing an increase in the number of reported crisis intervention encounters.
So far this year, Lexington saw a 31.45% increase in reports from last year. It’s their biggest increase since 2018.
Richmond police saw a decrease from last year but have seen a 68.5% increase in crisis encounters overall since 2017. Their department says they will soon hire a social worker/community resource coordinator and are working to increase the efficiency of their response.
Crisis Intervention Training
While all police recruits in Kentucky undergo some mental health education in basic academy, some may also choose to take the accredited 40-hour state course.
Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) training is a national program that focuses on creating a community partnership of law enforcement, mental health and addiction professionals, and individuals and families with disorders to improve the response to mental health crises. The state offers the course for free but officers or their department leaders have to sign up on their own.
State law started requiring in 2017 that all officers who complete CIT training complete a report detailing the crisis and the response. Officers encountered individuals experiencing a mental health crisis before CIT training, but there were no reporting requirements.
Lexington police started requiring all officers to complete the training in 2017 and believe the training and tracking of data could also be impacting what we see as an increase.
Denise Spratt, executive director of Kentucky’s CIT Training program, says that of the nearly 400 law enforcement agencies in the state, most leaders have committed to the training. She says classes for the upcoming 2023 training were filled in two days.
Crisis Intervention Teams
Over the years, Lair says police departments have had to shift their traditional role as enforcers to support, understand, and help connect people to mental health resources that are out there.
"I don't think we're at that social worker stage. You know, like we can't be a case manager for everybody but I do think we can be a better steward of our community," he explained.
Lexington Police has a team as well. It includes New Vista, judges, hospitals, schools, the fire department, community mental health centers, and other partners.
State data shows mobile or quick response teams are in place in more than 25% of Kentucky communities. They provide on-site crisis response, links to treatment and overdose education. Many hope that they will help prevent incarceration, hospital emergency drop-offs and violence.
Mental Health organizations like New Vista, NAMI Kentucky and affiliate agencies help train officers by facilitating their learning sessions on subjects like introduction to mental health, personality disorders, and psychotropic medications.
T.J. Litafik, strategic advisor for NAMI Kentucky says they are working with lawmakers to secure long-term funding for these efforts.
“I think Kentucky and other states need to certainly increase law enforcement training programs like CIT, and other forms of training to help law enforcement officers better understand mental illness and how to deal with people that are affected by it. And of course, like all other issues, that's going to take dedicated funding for programs and the focus also needs to be not only in urban areas, but in rural areas that have lagged behind,” said Litafik.
Reports filed after crisis interventions statewide show that officers with CIT training were successful at getting people the help they need without the use of force 97% of the time.
"So that reduces — reduces the burden on the taxpayer. It costs less to give somebody treatment than it does to incarcerate them and it also reduces the number of officer-related injuries,” Litafik added.
