The Johnson County area is gearing up to send officers through further training in the spring.
By Kayli Reese
All officers in Johnson County may soon be certified to deal with people with such conditions as mental illness.
Crisis Intervention Team training will be brought to Johnson County, and area officials said they are excited about the benefits.
The main focus of the training is to help officers learn how to react in scenarios with individuals under duress, which include runaways, substance abusers, and mentally ill individuals.
Jessica Peckover, the Johnson County jail alternative coordinator, will work on implementing the training in the county.
“One-third of people are being brought into custody before going to behavior-health services,” she said.
By having officers go through the program, Peckover said, they will be able to properly react in various situations in which arresting an individual might not be the best move. In scenarios with mentally ill people, bringing them to a hospital or similar service is more likely to be a better option.
“[The training] will give us more tools in the toolbox to have positive outcomes,” said Capt. Mark Bullock of the University of Iowa police.
Many of the calls the UI police receive have something to do with a person having a mental illness or abusing a substance, he said. Bullock noted that having verbal deceleration skills and mental illness awareness through the training would be extremely beneficial.
Alton Poole, the UI police crime-prevention specialist, said he has hoped the training would come to the department since he arrived in 1999.
Poole, who is certified in the training, has used it in difficult situations. Once before coming to the UI, Poole had to talk a suicidal individual off a 10-story ledge while a storm rolled in.
“It only makes sense that we’re certified,” he said.
Officers are usually the first to be called in situations dealing with people under duress, Poole said. By having this training, officers can bring these people in to be evaluated for care if necessary.
Poole also said the community needs to see the relevance of the program and support the training for officers. If families know about the training, he said, they know the service is available to help a family member under pressure.
Peckover said the goal is to have all officers in Johnson County go through the training starting in March. There will be three sessions a year, each with 60 officers, until all have gone through the program.
The Johnson County Sheriff’s Office, she said, also plans to have at least one officer who has gone through the training on each shift, ensuring that someone will always be on-duty in case a situation with a person who has a behavioral or mental condition occurs.
After all current officers have had the training, she said, the county will look into how often training needs to be done for any new officers in departments.
Among the six agencies throughout the county, she said, 21 individuals in police departments will train early so that they may help train the other officers in the spring.
Bullock, who joined the UI police two years ago, said he can definitely see the importance of going through training and having these skills, even in the Iowa City area.
“[The training] is a pretty amazing thing,” he said.