Should the police be solely responsible for dealing with violent mentally ill persons?

Oct 11, 2015 News

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By Dale Andrews

“The safety of both law enforcement officers and citizens is compromised when law enforcement responds to crises involving people with severe mental illnesses who are not being treated… There are also many cases where individuals with mental illnesses provoke police into killing them. This is now commonly called ‘suicide by cop’.”

Treating with the mentally challenged, especially those who are inclined to be violent, has always been a challenge for law enforcement in Guyana.
This is especially so since in the absence of adequately trained mental health professionals the police are most likely to be the first to be called upon to restrain violent mentally ill persons.
The consequences of their responses have been dire; ther e3have been deaths on both sides. Two recent cases come to mind; the fatal shooting of Junior Gulliver, called ‘Reggie’, by two cops in July, and the stabbing to death of Police Constable Antonio Dawson, last month.
According to a police officer, both incidents highlighted a lack of adherence to any Standard Operating Procedure that may guide engagement with mentally challenged persons.
But not all police ranks are buying into that of course the police could only respond to requests to deal with violent mentally ill persons with their guns.
“There is a clear Standing Order as to what procedure to follow…but a lot of the ranks don’t see that as part of their duty,” one senior police officer told this newspaper.
This position is supported by Minister of Public Health, Dr George Norton, who had informed Kaieteur News that there is a close collaboration between the Mental Health Unit and the Guyana Police Force. “As a matter of fact our first help line was launched in collaboration with the police. We did some training along with the Police Force on how to deal with persons of unsound mind,” the Minister said.
At least the Force administration has noted a particular deficiency in treating properly with mentally challenged persons and has seen the need to develop a package that will equip its ranks to deal with these situations when they occur.
So far, they have trained 134 of their frontline ranks (those on patrol duty) who are more likely to be the first responders.
Of course the training is ongoing but should be incorporated in the training manual for recruits, so that all police ranks will be aware of the procedure that needs to be followed when dealing with the mentally ill, so as to avoid unwanted physical harm or in the worse case, death to either party.
“Regarding guidelines they (police) would have been brought up to date with how you deal with a patient, depending on the state of that patient. It is not something that has not been deliberated on…instructions are available,” Minister Norton said.
“If somebody of unsound mind is violent, of course the police have got to use more restraining force than for somebody who is acting strangely but not endangering anybody’s life…It’s a different situation there or to somebody trying to commit suicide, it would vary how they deal with them,” the Minister added.
Two police ranks are awaiting the advice of the Director of Public Prosecution on whether they should face a murder charge for the fatal shooting of mentally ill man junior Gulliver at Cane Grove, Mahaica, East Coast Demerara.
The circumstances of the shooting are still unclear as both the police and eyewitnesses, including the dead man’s relatives have given conflicting accounts of what transpired.
What is clear though is that Gulliver did attack the police ranks with a cutlass, forcing them to seek refuge in the vehicle they went to the scene with. Such was the violence displayed by Gulliver that the car’s windows were damaged.
Eyewitnesses claimed that the ranks went back to the station and uplifted weapons then returned to the scene with the pre-meditation to shoot Gulliver.
The eyewitnesses said that the ranks confronted the mentally ill man again and shot him even though he posed no threat to them at the time.
But the ranks are maintaining that when they went back to the station, they received another call to return to the scene since Gulliver was acting up again. Since they were almost seriously injured in their first encounter with Gulliver, they decided to take no chances. So they armed themselves and went back where they met Gulliver again and this time the consequences were fatal.
Many are arguing that the police should not be the only ones called upon to respond to reports of mentally ill persons behaving violently.
“What about the professional people who are supposed to be trained to deal with the mentally ill? They are supposed to know how to restrain them because the only resort of the police will be their guns,” a police rank said.
But even the staff at Psychiatric Ward of the GPHC appears ill-equipped to deal with violent mentally ill people; it would seem that they too depend on the police.
A case in point was when the police were called to deal with a ‘mad man’, who was breaking windscreens outside the Ward. The question is why wasn’t anyone from the clinic capable of restraining him?
Like relatives, the operatives at the psychiatric ward call the police first…of course the police response was to discharge several rounds albeit into the air to calm down the mentally ill man.
“By right these people should be institutionalized; that is why we have the National Psychiatric Hospital but of course that hospital needs a lot of regulations being put in place,” Minister Norton said.
He explained that a mental institution is one where a person is taken into the care for a period of time, treated and then made to leave after being cured or relieved of some of their difficulties condition.
But even the task of getting mentally ill persons to the mental institution is left up to the police.
According to a US publication, Treatment Advocacy Center,”a natural outgrowth of a mental health system that withholds needed treatment until a person with a mental illness becomes dangerous is that police officers and Sheriff’s Deputies are forced to become front line mental health workers.”
“The safety of both law enforcement officers and citizens is compromised when law enforcement responds to crises involving people with severe mental illnesses who are not being treated… There are also many cases where individuals with mental illnesses provoke police into killing them. This is now commonly called ‘suicide by cop’.”
It was explained that the relatives of a mentally ill person will first report the circumstances to the police, who should assist in taking that person into custody.
Of course the police station lock-ups is not the ideal place for such persons, but there is hardly anything else that can happen especially if the incident occurs at the weekend.
“The police will now have to play the role of a Psychic Doctor,” a police rank said.
The relative is then given an insanity form to fill out and the matter then goes before a magistrate where the relative swears to information that would cause the magistrate to refer the patient to the National Psychiatric Hospital.
Most police ranks are reluctant to be a part of this process since it involves long waits at the Georgetown Public Hospital’s Accident and Emergency Ward in the first place before the patient can be seen and diagnosed.
“After a waiting while, the patient starts to get anxious because he knows where he is and he does not want to be there, so he begins to act up and nobody from the Psychiatric Ward is there to restrain them; that task is left for the police,” the rank complained.
The minister said that if that patient is going to fall into a crisis or not after they would have left the institution one cannot say.
“The natural tendency for most of them is not to use their prescribed medications, and somebody who is on the street today looking perfectly sane, tomorrow can be in full crisis of mental disorder and for that reason you might find persons of unsound mind on the streets,” the Public Health Minister told this newspaper.
But more and more the police seem reluctant to take on the task of dealing with the mentally ill. In fact in some cases, subordinate officers have refused to risk sending their ranks to apprehend violent ‘mad people’.
Only recently a woman of unsound mind broke several windscreens and when police picked her up, she somehow managed to jump through the window of their vehicle.
Of course the police, frustrated by the situation, left her on the road, a move that led to persons questioning their actions which seemed to suggest that that was not their problem or responsibility. Needless to say, the woman was left on the road to continue her damage.
Apart from the fatal shooting at cane there have been several police shootings of mentally ill persons.
But the police themselves suffer at the hands of the mentally ill.
Remember Solomon Blackman, who walked into the Brickdam Police Station compound, disarmed a rank and proceeded to shoot two policemen dead.
Strangely enough, he was not shot in return but was skillfully restrained and disarmed.
Not many police ranks may be able to do that today. Constable Antonio Dawson tried something like that and paid the ultimate price.
Solomon Blackman charged for the policemen’s murder but was consider not lucid enough on many occasions to stand trial.
He was eventually killed in prison but not before he himself had murdered another prisoner.
But despite standard operating procedures, many ranks are clear in their decision not to engage violent mentally persons.
“I am not risking my life over that and besides there is nothing to covert us if we shoot that person and kill them, even if we are protecting our lives,” one subordinate officer declared.

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