April 23: Beth and Melanie have the Spider Man theme song stuck in their heads
Next, we met Sergeant Adam Beck. Quote: “I originally got my degree in Civil Engineering, but when I joined the Sheriff’s Office I realized that people aren’t always predictable like that.”
Sergeant Beck is the man your parents wish you’d married instead. He’s tall and earnest and close-cropped blond, and he stoops a little, not because his height makes him uncomfortable, but because he spends his days wishing he had the resources to do even more than he’s already doing.
And frankly, he wasn’t excited to be the one behind the podium. But Sergeant Fred Nieman, who normally handles the presentation part, couldn’t make it.
Sergeant Beck’s presentation concerned the co-responder program that unites mental health professionals and social workers with deputies, so that law enforcement has some way to assist people beyond subduing an immediate crisis.
Sergeant Beck: “Before, for example, you’d get a call and show up and find, say, a divorced couple still living in the same apartment. And they obviously needed help, but there’d been no crime committed, so we pretty much had to say, ‘Sorry, out of luck.’ But now, these co-responders show up when no arrest happens.”
These were the opening remarks Sergeant Beck offered while we were waiting for an informative video to begin. Unfortunately, the video would play for about eight seconds, and then we’d see a “buffering” signal.
Sergeant Beck watched the projector screen with a kind of harried fatalism and muttered, “IT keeps insisting there’s not an internet problem up here. . .”
We opted to forgo the informative video.
Some facts about the program:
- The CRESA folks can provide additional resources for people in trouble.
- The program actually decreases the response time for 911 calls, because deputies can hand the situation off to the co-responders and move on to the next emergency.
- The bar to enforce hospitalization (in cases of severe injury, mental illness, self-harm or drug use) is high in Washington, but with co-responders to step in, enforced hospitalization isn’t the only solution.
- The co-responder team includes specialists with advanced degrees, as well as peers with personal experience
- The co-responders can assist with call documentation and communication with medical partners.
Sergeant Beck: “There used to be only three lines a deputy could use to explain a reason for hospitalization. The doctor would read the form, talk to the person, maybe give them some meds, let them sit for an hour and then turn them loose. What the mental health team does is document the person’s whole medical history, including repeat history.”
Law enforcement can order a person to be held in a hospital for a maximum of four to six hours, and even that, a doctor can overrule. With this program, once the person is in the hospital, the co-responders call and speak directly to the charge nurse or social worker and fully explain the situation. (Explaining, for example, if the person sees delusions or is disassociating.) The co-responders know the technical terms to use. Co-responders can also, in certain circumstances, act as a designated crisis responder and remove a person’s rights, so that they are held in the hospital longer. But the aim is to get people involved in outpatient therapy as soon as possible.
Sergeant Beck: “There are a lot of services available for people out there. A lot. Deputies hear about services for various issues, but it’s hard to know which specific agency to approach. It’s also difficult to remember who you can call at what time. These co-responders help direct people on where to go.”
The program is financed via the Washington Mental Health Sales Tax. There’s a review board that includes medical professionals which evaluates the program every two years to determine whether to continue. “But as far as we’re concerned,” Sergeant Beck said, “the goal is better customer service, rather than volume.”
In the past, cops were forced to tell people to call a doctor in the morning, or recommend that people in crisis call resources that were only open 8-5, Monday through Friday. The co-responder program is staffed from eight am to midnight Monday through Friday, and they’re hoping to eventually expand to twenty-four/seven staffing, possibly in collaboration with the VPD co-responder team.
(Why that particular time frame? It’s based on call volume. Apparently, law enforcement stuff happens after midnight, but mental heath crises mostly happen during swing shift hours.)
The process happens this way: a call comes in through either 911 or 311. An officer is dispatched, along with a team of two CRESA representatives. The officer enters first to ensure that anything dangerous is subdued, and then gets out of the way. The average response time is twenty minutes, and when you consider that these are county law enforcement with a lot of ground to cover, that’s pretty impressive. The co-responders have also begun experimenting with helping over the phone, and they feel it’s producing good results.
In March, the deputy/co-responder teams answered twenty-five calls, thirteen of which became outreach opportunities.
Question from the class: “What about if the person is armed? Or suicidal?”
Sergeant Beck said that often law enforcement was reluctant to engage, because it exacerbated a situation. “Having someone with us who is a mental health professional is often much easier on a person in crisis.”
One of the CRESA people spoke up at this. “Actually, we feel that law enforcement is on par with social workers in terms of how chill and compassionate they are with our community.”
Another question from the class: “Are the body cams on at these times?”
They are. “There’s always a lot of talking involved,” Sergeant Beck said. “Just like anything in law enforcement. A lot of explaining.”
Tangentia (oh, you knew it was coming): “Do the IT guys have to qualify to use guns?”
Sergeant Beck: “Heh-heh.”
Tangentia: “No, really. Do they?”
Sergeant Beck: “To use guns?”
Tangentia: “Yeah.”
Sergeant Beck: “. . .No.”
Poor Sergeant Beck. Nobody warned him.
Next up: Real detectives, actual cases!
