POUGHKEEPSIE – Volunteers from law enforcement agencies across Dutchess County began a week-long, 40-hour training course Monday at Marist College.
The approximately 40 officers, from all areas of the county, are taking part in the Dutchess County Crisis Intervention Team training with a goal to eventually have 25 percent of Dutchess’ law enforcers trained. The training will focus on teaching officers how to deal with individuals with mental health issues in an effort to keep them out of jail and to prevent misunderstandings with them.
Sgt. Eric Weaver, executive director of Overcoming the Darkness, a retired Rochester police officer and instructor for the training course, said approximately 75 percent to 80 percent of calls police respond to have to do with someone who is mentally ill, or, have a mentally ill person present on the scene.
“So what we really try to do is to train officers and teach officers the challenges and difficulties and understanding – understanding is what we teach so much of on the issue of empathy – to understand and show dignity and compassion and all those things to someone who didn’t commit a crime, someone who didn’t do anything wrong but, they’re struggling with a mental illness,” Weaver said, noting they teach officers that mental illness is a medical condition, not a crime; that one out of five people struggle with it every day.
New York State mandates a total of 14 hours of mental health training for officers in the police academy. According to Weaver, some of the officer participants have been out of the academy for more than a decade and have not had additional mental health training since. With that being the case, he said it is very important to have a group of officers with comprehensive training like the Dutchess County Crisis Intervention Team and he believes there will be a huge beneficial impact to the county’s community as a result.
The training will end on Friday, June 26.
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