EDITORIAL: Crisis Intervention Team a great preventative measure for police

Sept. 30--Those who struggle with mental illness have hard lives, and we sympathize with them. But there's no doubt some make it harder for police officers to keep the peace.

They're usually depressed or angry or both, and that makes them do things to dull their pain. Usually that involves alcohol or drugs, and people have done many bad things when they're under those influences. That's when people call the police.

Many times those people wind up in jail for a day or so until they are released and then go back to their homes and repeat the cycle. And, quite frankly, those may be the lucky ones.

That's why we were so glad, even grateful, at the Greeley Police Department's recent efforts to help these people before things get out of control.

As we showed you in Sunday's story, some police officers are trained to be members of the Crisis Intervention Team. These officers hope to address mental health concerns without using their handcuffs. In Sunday's story, Ryan Oettinger talked to the mother of a son who was regularly drinking too much because he was depressed. Oettinger counseled him a bit and gave him a couple numbers where he could get help. He even gave him his own cell phone number.

There's no doubt these interventions prevent tragedy, either making someone think twice about suicide or, in some rare cases, stopping a shooting.

Not all police shootings involve those struggling with mental illness, but the hard fact is many do. Some have tried to goad the police into shooting them, something commonly called "suicide by cop," and others cause a disturbance that goes horribly wrong.

This program goes beyond just preventing shootings, however. We have no doubt this will help get them out of our jails and into places that can help them. Police officers are even teaming up with Clear View Behavioral Health and North Range Behavioral Health to try to ensure people get the help they need once they're released from jail.

We know sometimes police officers have no choice but to deal with those struggling with mental illness because they're posing a danger. We also are glad to see officers doing what they can to prevent these unfortunate and sometimes tragic scenarios from happening.

-- The Tribune Editorial Board

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