Panora County Sheriff Cutter Clinton made addressing mental illness a major theme in the law enforcement world last week.
The event was a ceremony announcing the oath of office of two members of Congress and the promotion of two longtime officers. But Clinton also used the opportunity to inform his officers and the public that there would be a renewed focus on addressing mental health issues within the department.
The promotions were awarded to Lieutenant Scott Jones as county mental health lieutenant and Casey Jones as detention chief.
While Clinton took the oath of honor, each new congressman had a new badge pinned to his uniform by his wife, Kelsey McBrayer and Christine Mitchell.
Clinton said one of her key goals since taking office has been to focus on addressing mental health issues. Towards that end, it was announced that he would promote Scott Jones to the department’s mental health officer.
“In our society and in law enforcement, law enforcement agencies, especially sheriff’s offices, are increasingly obligated to deal with the mentally ill in our communities,” Clinton said. . These additional duties include transferring prisoners who may have behavioral problems and supervising prisoners in custody while they are hospitalized for evaluation or medical care. includes.
“There are also precautions we can take to hopefully have a good plan when a person is in crisis,” he said. It is dealing with suicidal subjects.
Jones is asked to coordinate efforts with patrol officers and detention centers when officers may be dealing with subjects with mental health problems.
“The idea is to establish rapport with these people, reach out to their families as well, and ensure proper contact information. We can have a good game plan to explore options on how to deal with that, and we will deal with that,” Clinton said.
“We don’t condone any kind of criminal behavior,” Clinton said. There are more.”
Some residents of counties that the Sheriff’s Office is routinely tasked with dealing with have been convicted of sex crimes.
There are 79 registered sex offenders known to live in Panola County. Ms Clinton said part of Ms Jones’ expanded responsibilities will include compliance with sex offenders.
“Deputy Jones has become a licensed mental health officer in Texas,” he said. Clinton also said he retained the nomination.
According to the Texas Department of Health and Human Services, the Mental Health Sub-Program will reduce the state crisis by keeping people who need behavioral health crisis services out of hospitals and prisons for more effective and less costly behavioral therapy. Strengthen the response system. According to DHS, mental health agents are law enforcement officers who have undergone special training in crisis interventions provided by the Texas Law Enforcement Commission.
