You’ll be Needed When Things Go Sideways

Guest Opinion

Earlier this month, in Traverse City, the scene was set for a perfect demonstration of our failed national response to the mental health crisis. Similar situations take place every day in cities and towns across the country. On Aug. 10, it was just our turn, in a house on Eighth Street.

The situation: A distraught, bedridden, drunk, and suicidal man is firing a gun in his home.

Traverse City Police respond, closing the street to traffic, surrounding the house, and there is no response from the man with the gun. We have a stand-off.

As the events unfolded on local news and social media, we all braced ourselves. As a community, we have been through this before, and we know how it ends. I assumed the worst. 

Sending a thank-you note to our police chief was the last thing I saw coming. His gutsy decision to remove all but a handful of officers and let the situation deescalate on its own was so unexpected.

An excerpt from my letter follows.

Dear Chief O'Brien,

This note is prompted by your decision to deescalate the situation on Monday with the emotionally troubled and armed gentlemen at his home on Eighth Street ...

... Your decision exemplified the wisdom found in compassion, reason, and the willingness to shoulder the responsibility and risk for the outcome. Your decision was nothing short of courageous and is to be commended.

Many family members and friends of the mentally ill hesitate to call 911 when they should, out of fear that their loved one will be treated as a criminal. I sincerely believe that because of your decision on Monday and the outcome on Tuesday, our community is on the right path to becoming a safer place for all residents ...

... Should you or the department ever be in need of a supportive resident citizen, I am here for you.

With sincere appreciation,

Mary Rogers

I’ve never met Chief O’Brien and was surprised to hear back:

Ms. Rogers,

I appreciate the comments. We have been planning to implement a time-sharing program with Northern Lakes Community Health for several years. This entails our officers trained in Crisis Intervention and a Social Worker assigned to the department for call-out. We are getting close. Please do what you can to support that partnership.

Sincerely,

Chief Jeffrey O’Brien

Well, I can do something. 

This is not the first time I have used this space to bring attention to the upside-down reality that law enforcement is our current answer to mental health emergencies. 

While we do not have the funding, people, facilities, or resources in place to humanely, safely, or effectively respond to the needs of our citizens suffering from addiction and/or mental illness, what we do have in this city is hands-down extraordinary. O’Brien is addressing his community’s mental health emergencies with a department-wide culture of compassion while leveraging community partnerships.

He put me in touch with the TCPD’s Crisis Intervention Training Coordinator, Officer Jennilyn Oster. In our conversation, her frustration with the limitation of available funding and resources was evident, but she never once expressed any frustration with the task. She is the front line for the department and a champion for the families touched by these issues. Her frustration is only that the department cannot be more helpful.

In Traverse City, we are remarkably fortunate to have Chief O’Brien and Officer Oster committed to crisis intervention best practices. Three officers are fully certified now; and, with funding provided by Northern Lakes Community Mental Health, all of the department’s patrol officers and detectives will receive eight hours of introductory crisis intervention training this fall, with additional training planned for future years.

This community investment in such training is highly unusual for a police department of TCPD’s size. Unlike many other states, Michigan does not provide, mandate, or fund mental-health or crisis-intervention training for law enforcement officers. O’Brien is making it happen here.

So, is there a call to action? There is no simple solution. In truth, there are a million little things that each of us could do, but not a single thing will bring the sweeping changes needed.

I believe that perhaps the most valuable response is to prepare for the day when — not if — things go sideways during a police response to a mental health emergency. We will be needed by our police chief and his team to stand by them and stand up to critics when law enforcement makes compassionate and well-reasoned decisions to treat a situation differently than we might expect.

It is easy to say we support Chief Jeffery O’Brien and his team today. The call to action is our bold commitment now to support future good decisions and their perhaps unfortunate outcomes.

Mary Keyes Rogers lives in Traverse City and is the host of The Experience 50 Podcast for Midlife. She is currently encouraging her followers to promote change through writing letters of thanks. www.experience50.com

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