Renee moving back to the cities has good reason for concern. In my experience police treatment of the mentally ill is hit or miss, no pun intended.
I have experienced both extremes; base cruelty and gentle concern. David Wilson proposes a model other than the "Memphis Model" to which we might give consideration. It will do no good though if mental health pros at the county level and higher up's in the police departments approach this model arrogantly which is essentially how they approached the Memphis model. By arrogance I mean close-mindedness or the thought that they can take an approach and tinker with it because "we know best what will work." Another arrogance is the sort I detected in Police Chief Olson; while he can cite chapter and verse on CODEFOR, mental health issues rate a much lower priority. Instead the Police Chief whines about how society's ills filter down to the police. DUH! This guy is supposed to be such a highly regadrded pro in his field yet his department has an anti-deluvian approach to serving the mentally ill in the community. Yes! Serving the mentally ill. The mentally ill have as great a right to fair, prompt, efficient service as other citizens in society. I can also tell you that people at the Hennepin Cty. level are not much better. I feel comfortable saying that Dr. Gary Fischler at Hennepin County is a large part of the problem. He is involved in psychological screening for MPD as well as the county person involved in CIT training for the MPD. For those reasons it is difficult for me to assess the new training some MPD offiers have received in the "Memphis Model". I also fear that the death of Officer Melissa Schmidt who participated in CIT training may set back the program. CIT training along the Memphis model may not be the best way to approach the problem but at least it was something. Even though i think it was something the Chief could point to and say "See I did something", whereas really all he did was deflect the issue to Gary Hestness, at least Gary Hestness cares. As a good friend of mine forever points out to me "the fish rots from the head down", I think until we have a more engaged Chief we will continue to face troubles. Likewise I believe the Mayor has missed the boat. As another friend forever points out to me, "you have to understand that R.T. basically sees everything as a public relations problem." After the shooting of Abu Kassim Jellanie in March the Mayor was all over the issue of police treatment of the mentally ill. In mid March he sought out the advice of mental health people and the Friends of Barbara Schneider. On March 16th, 2002 the FOBS presented to the Mayor a 50 page proposal of Action Recommendations for Minneapolis dealing with crisis situations involving the mentally ill. While this document did not speak of the Ann Arbor program David Wilson speaks of it did look at a number of different approaches to handling crisis situations. As a result the Mayor pulled together people from the county, state, even someone from Sen Wellstone's office to 'appear' with him at a State Capitol news conference. A panoply of Democratic officeholders. It was great theatre but that was about all it was! It was the same treatment he brought to the Civilian Review Authority redesign. What did Shakespeare say "A tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." One of the Mayor's aide sidled up to me in the hallway outside the conference room and said "I think it went pretty well in there, don't you?" I guess he confused me with a P.R.Man. To say I was revolted would be an understatement. Since then: NOTHING! NADA! BUPKIS! So Renee, you have good reason to fear. Nobody around here in public service either really cares or can lay aside their preconceptions or can organize a two car funeral and get it moving. Tim Connolly DT Minneapolis __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Faith Hill - Exclusive Performances, Videos & More http://faith.yahoo.com _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
