In a police officer's line of work, it's important for them to recognize when someone is suffering from a mental illness.
On Tuesday, Reno Police confronted a suicidal person in southwest Reno on Marsh Avenue, and after trying to talk him down, officers were forced to shoot him. He survived, and Sparks Police are now investigating.
Law enforcement is trained to handle these sorts of incidents as a part of their crisis-intervention training.
Police officers respond to mentally or emotionally disturbed people on a daily basis, so it's important for them to know how to deescalate potentially dangerous situations.
"The idea behind that is to try to catch these incidents before they reach a critical level,” said Captain Jeff Clark with the Washoe County Sheriff’s Office.
By critical level, he means a person threatening to cause danger to themselves, to police or to the public. Just this week, there's been a standoff and an officer-involved shooting in Reno. In both cases, law enforcement put their crisis intervention training to use.
"Basically what you're trying to do is open a communication between you and that individual,” said Jason Kloehn, Crime Prevention Officer with the Sparks Police Department.
A trained officer should then recognize if the person they're dealing with is suffering from a variety of issues. This could include mental illness, anger, or possibly drug abuse.
"I would say it is almost a day to day call for service,” said Kloehn.
"The idea is to get every officer in our valley crisis intervention training, that's a 40 hour block, so one week of instruction,” said Clark.
That training is also required for officers who work in the county jail, where most of the inmates require additional help and medical resources.
"90% to 95% of our jail population has some type of mental health behavior,” said Clark.
Police say in order to decrease those staggering numbers, recognizing and treating mental illness has to be at the forefront of public safety.
“The only way we can truly deal with it and be effective is if we work together as a community,” said Clark.
