“In rural areas, they have no resources as in cities,” said Gordon Ramsay, a sheriff of the County of St. Louis. “In the Ely or Babbitt areas, you do not have a social worker who can overcome in five minutes. It is our staff who take care of it. Although we have incredible staff, it is not the best to deal with people in crisis. A uniform and a badge can create an escalation with the uniform. ”
Ramsay said that a person could call 911 up to 40 to 50 times in an active mental health crisis. This type of volume drowns other calls and cannot be ignored.
“The police are designed to respond to a crisis, repair it and go to the next one,” said Duluth police chief Mike Ceynowu. “This is not how it works for people with mental health problems. It is a repetitive cycle. “
A 2015 seminal study of the Treatment Advocacy Center revealed that people with untreated serious mental illness were 16 times more likely to die than other people due to meetings with the police. After this report, the researchers had trouble acquiring reliable data to update this figure.
In Pocatello, Idaho, a 17 -year -old autistic boy Victor Perez, who reached brain paralysis, was shot dead nine times when the police responded to a call to his family’s home on April 5. Perez held a knife when the police killed him fatally on the other side of the fence shortly after their arrival. His family intends to continue the city for unjustified death.
Here in Minnesota, A St. Paul woman was shot dead After pointing a weapon on the officers during a suicide crisis last year. The county of Ramsey refused to continue the police, qualifying their decision justified by the circumstances.