Crisis program teaches patience

By LEO STRUPCZEWSKI
Courier-Post Staff

At the end, the 45-year-old man -- who was cutting himself with a 15-inch knife and asking for police to shoot him at Newtown Lake Park -- stopped.

He offered up his knife, handle first, and walked with a detective to a nearby police cruiser.

No handcuffs, no list of charges.

The tense, 25-minute standoff ended peacefully last week and police drove the man, who suffers from schizophrenia, to the county's mental health screening center for evaluation and treatment.

Life-saving tactics

In the most public setting yet, the Collingswood Police Department's Crisis Intervention Team handled the incident to "textbook" perfection, said Chief Thomas Garrity. Now, there's a hope the program, already lauded by state officials and expanding to Cherry Hill, will continue to grow.

"Without a doubt, this program saved this guy's life," Garrity said. "A year ago, he probably would have been shot and killed."

As a state Attorney General committee weighs the merits of allowing police to carry nonlethal weapons, situations such as the one last week leave law enforcement agencies with little room for error. They usually end in one of two ways: a shooting or a surrender.

Camden County officials have implemented a program aimed at de-escalating mental health crisis situations and arranging for the person, often referred to as a "consumer," to receive evaluation and treatment.

The program, called the Crisis Intervention Team, partners county resources, local law enforcement and mental health professionals. Police from Collingswood and Cherry Hill are trained in the program and officials from the Haddon Township Police Department have expressed interest in joining them. It is the first such program in the state.

Training, which lasts 40 hours, introduces police officers to various mental illnesses and the effects of psychotropic medication. Officers also learn suicide prevention techniques and how to de-escalate a situation verbally. They hear from people suffering with mental illness and visit county mental health facilities and the Camden County Jail.

The cost is minimal. Mental health officials, who are part of the training, donate their time.

Last week, it was Collingswood Police Detective Tom Hartshaw who responded to a call at the Heights of Collingswood. A man was wandering with a knife.

Before long, the man was in Newton Lake Park, not far from 25 to 30 children at the playground.

A typical situation would have had sirens blaring and police officers pointing their guns at the man, shouting for him to drop the weapon, officers said.

But none of that happened.

Hartshaw, a CIT-trained officer, became the point of contact. Several other police officers sealed off an area so Hartshaw and the man could talk. One officer, in the distance, had a rifle. He was covering Hartshaw.

For several minutes, Hartshaw attempted to hold eye contact with the man to settle him down. At one point, he put his gun behind his back.

Though it eventually worked, the man made his way toward Hartshaw several times, knife drawn. And several times the man cut himself. The whole time, though, Hartshaw kept eye contact with the man, talking to him and encouraging him to drop the knife. He continuously told him help was available for him.

"We don't put officer safety aside, but it's a gut call," Garrity said. "We just basically slowed everything down. There was no need to rush in. . . You don't want sirens and noise and flashing things. Basically, you're dealing with someone who is scared inside."

The long-standing model of policing in the county has been to admit mentally ill people who cause disturbances to the jail.

Though there are two hospitals that will conduct a mental health screening, the wait to get one ranges from eight to 12 hours. Police are required to wait with the person the whole time.

Under those circumstances, county officials said, it's easier for a police officer to place the person in jail.

But doing so, said Camden County Administrator Ross Angilella, causes two problems: jail overcrowding and ignorance.

"(Mental illness) is not a criminal issue," he said. "It's a medical issue. These people need help."

Through the county's CIT program, a mental health screening system was set up at Kennedy Memorial Hospital in Cherry Hill. Police can turn a person over to medical professionals there within 20 minutes. At that point, their job is done. County service providers then take over, evaluating the person and providing treatment.

Some end up at in-patient facilities, others return home shortly after the incident.

"The hook to law enforcement is. . . "Hey, guys, we'll make it easy on you,' " Angilella said. "It'll be like dropping them off at the jail."

But it's a far cry from that.

Gale Lewin, president of the Camden County chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, said a number of families who attend NAMI meetings have horror stories about how police handled incidents.

In the past, SWAT teams have arrived at the home of a mentally ill person. Other times, a person has been shot and killed by police because of simple misunderstandings.

Those who have dealt with CIT officers, however, have yet to complain.

"I'd love to see this everywhere," Lewin said. "I feel more people need to put down their own barriers and realize there is help out there."

That is what happened last week.

As the man walked to a nearby police cruiser after surrendering his knife, he asked for a cigarette.

Police assured them they could find one and promised his window would be down so he could smoke on his way to treatment.

Reach Leo Strupczewski at (856) 317-7828 or lstrupczewski@courierpostonline.com