NEWS

Police seek end to cycle of jailing mentally ill

Adam Rodewald
USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin
Green Bay Police Officers Tracy Liska and Barb Gerarden, who are working on a new mental-health assignment, check on a woman who was referred to them by other officers.

Two Green Bay police officers are part of an ongoing experiment to connect mentally ill people with treatment and keep them out of jail.

Officers Tracy Liska and Barb Gerarden have taken on the special assignment, which takes them off of normal patrol duties and instead has them responding solely to mental illness-related incidents.

The new roles were created in response to the large volume of mental health calls received by the department.

Green Bay police respond to 20,000 to 32,000 mental illness-related incidents every year, according to the department. That amounts to 25 to 40 percent of the 80,000 calls for service the department receives annually.

The problem is most patrol officers aren’t trained to deal with mental health crises, aren’t familiar enough with local treatment services to make referrals and have no time to follow-up with individuals after 911 calls.

As a result, police were responding to emergency calls involving the same mentally ill people over and over again without ever successfully getting them treatment.

Capt. Jeremy Muraski wants that revolving door to close, so he initiated the mental health officers program.

“We wanted to try and move from a Band-Aid type approach to a problem-solving approach where we can help connect people with services and stakeholders to give them a better quality of life and a better chance for successful treatment,” he said.

The police department placed Liska and Gerarden on the special mental-health assignment beginning in November. Two other officers will take over the role in April for an additional 60 to 90 working days. After the testing period ends, the department will assess its success and determine whether to make the positions permanent.

The initial response to the initiative has been positive.

“It’s been a win-win for the people we support,” said Tana Koss, division director of crisis and counseling services at Family Services. The organization operates a crisis center in Brown County that has worked closely with the mental health officers.

“Law enforcement officers are really the front line of our continuum of care. They connect with our community first, and so having them as partners in making sure community members in need get linked to the supports they need is critical,” Koss said.

Green Bay Police Officer Tom Behn speaks with Officer Tracy Liska about an incident with a person facing eviction.

Building bridges

Gerarden and Liska said they see themselves as a bridge between the people who are struggling and local treatment services.

“Our mental health system is pretty complicated, and it’s hard for people to navigate. We’ve been told we’ve been instrumental for a lot of families struggling to navigate the system … Part of our training is just understanding all the resources in the community,” Gerarden said.

Gerarden and Liska were chosen to test out the program because of their previous experience in responding to mental health incidents. Gerarden was the first Green Bay officer trained in the crisis intervention team model of policing in 2005. Liska was trained in 2006.

CIT is a widely accepted model based on creating relationships between officers, health care providers and people battling mental illness. Green Bay now has 37 CIT-trained patrol officers.

Police training on mental health lags

The biggest difference between the two mental health officers and other CIT-trained police is they don’t have additional patrol duties and can dedicate much more time to working with individual people. In a sense, they serve a role halfway between cop and social worker.

Take, for example, an incident Liska responded to earlier this month involving a man who, because of his mental illness, thought he was being threatened by a stalker.

Liska said she was able to relieve the first patrol officer who arrived on the scene and then calmed the man down by talking with him. The man agreed to make a psychiatric appointment, but he was initially told he couldn’t be seen for about two months because of a shortage of psychiatrists. Liska followed up with her connections in the mental health community and got the man an appointment for the next day.

“We’ll call doctors, write to doctors and let them know what’s going on to try to help people in crisis sooner,” Liska said. “If you have to wait two months until someone can be seen, how many more police calls or crisis situations will there be in that time period? Part of our goal is to be proactive so we’re not just responding to crises.”

The officers also advocate in court for people arrested because of their mental illness. Earlier this month, they spoke on behalf of a mentally ill man who was arrested for aggressive behavior at his bond hearing. The officers successfully got him out of jail and into a treatment facility, they said.

“The hard part is the symptoms of mental illness are often behavioral and sometimes mimic criminal,” Gerarden said.

Liska added: “We want to decriminalize (behaviors caused by mental illness) and not have that person sitting in jail. We want to come together with others and talk about what is the best solution for each person’s needs.”

Muraski said he’s convinced the mental health officers will make a difference in the community.

“Unfortunately, there is no panacea or miracle fix for every mental health situation, but I firmly believe that allowing these officers more time to problem solve and make meaningful connections will benefit the individuals, their families and the police. If we can help them improve their quality of life, keep them safer and reduce their number of police calls for service, everyone wins,” he said.

Green Bay Police  Officers Barb Gerarden (left) and Tracy Liska check under the University Avenue bridge following a report that a homeless person was sleeping there. The officers are on a special mental-health assignment that seeks to connect the mentally ill with treatment and other help.

arodewal@pressgazettemedia.com and follow him on Twitter @AdamGRodewald and on Facebook at Facebook.com/AdamGRodewald.