KALAMAZOO, Mich. — 9-1-1 calls for mental health are rising, according to Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety, so they’re training officers across multiple agencies how to respond to different scenarios.
During one scenario on Wednesday, all police knew when they showed up to a married couple’s apartment was that the wife is bipolar and had a manic episode, and her husband is the one that called for help.
They were then tasked with deciding how to de-escalate the situation and gauge if there’s more to the story.
When police arrived at the apartment, they knocked on the door and were greeted by an angry couple.
“Did you seriously call the cops?” the wife asked.
“Yeah, what do you expect?” the husband replied.
The police immediately separated the two; one officer stayed with the wife inside, and another officer took the husband outside.
Each of them was given a chance to tell their side of the story.
We learn that the wife cheated on her husband, and he found out, but police seemed more worried about the bruises on her arm and how they got there.
Clarity came when a neighbor came over yelling at the husband.
She told police she watched the husband hit his wife.
While this all took place, officers and social workers kept calm tones, asked tough questions and making sure both sides were feeling heard.
They ultimately decided that while they were called to the home for a mental health issue, it had become a domestic violence case.
“Want to go hands on with me?” one officer asked another.
They put the husband in handcuffs and offered employment and mental health services to the wife.
The whole scenario took less than 15 minutes and afterwards the team talked about how it went.
They made changes like the need for the social worker to introduce themselves and reminding officers to knock on the door before entering the home.
“I feel like it was a very real situation. I feel like we’ve been in situations like that,” one participant said.
This was just one of several scenarios. They also practiced outdoor scenarios, ones involving weapons or cars and deadly force.