Chris Hayes and Joey Schneider
5 hours ago
ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. – For all the police incidents that lead to criminal charges, there are many that don't make the news.
Like what happened recently in Maryland Heights, where an entire street was shut down but no criminal charges were filed.
“We were able to clear the area and allow the individual to exit on their own,” said Lt. Rich Wagner with the Maryland State Police.
Lt. Wagner says the training of the Crisis Intervention Team, also known as CIT, prevented a possible tragedy.
“Social work is part of our job,” Wagner added.
There are other examples, like last Tuesday, when FOX 2 captured video of a negotiation between St. Charles police and a man in a Walgreens parking lot. The case ended peacefully, with no criminal charges filed.
Last year, we featured a dramatic scene in North County where a woman stole a police car and crashed it.
In body camera footage we obtained, officers can be heard saying, “It could have been a lot worse.” She might have hit someone – a ray of hope. ”
The suspect is now being tried in a mental health court after CIT-trained officers de-escalated the incident under extreme circumstances.
In another clip of body camera footage, a witness to the police car crash can be heard asking, “Is she going to jail for a long time?!” The officer replied, “No, she has other things going on.”
Police say they frequently encounter people who have something else going on.
“The odds are very high, considering that one in three adults in the United States has some kind of mental health problem at any given time,” Lt. Wagner said.
That's why more police officers are being trained through a program called Mental Health First Aid, as well as CIT training coordinated by the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI).
“We want to keep people in crisis out of the justice system,” said CIT Coordinator and St. Louis County Sergeant Patrick Hoekamp.
He added: “Officers with CIT training use 40% less force than non-CIT trained officers.”
Sergeant Hokamp was instrumental in facilitating the nation's first program that allows Missouri law enforcement agencies to share crisis reporting databases.
He explained: “Say someone comes to a St. Louis Cardinals game from Kansas City. You can see what happened and learn about their support members.”
Progress is measured in cases like the suspect in that police car crash. She is halfway through mental health court. As I was writing this report, a relative of the woman told me: She is currently in good mental health and is looking for her job. ”
It is a hopeful message and will be followed up on when the defendant concludes his trial in the mental health court.
Please remember. If you're in a crisis, call or text 988 and someone will respond immediately. Just these three numbers (988) connect you to the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.
