One failure is the lack of coverage of all the wins.
Officer talks the person off the edge of death.
Officer saves someone because they are the first on the scene
Officer disarms someone without further incident.
I don't know what info they receive before arriving - previous contacts?
records? violent history? local knowledge probably dominates, but in a bit city.....
even with that info, who in the periphery wants to take a shot a a cop?
unreal what we ask them to walk into.
Agreed.
We had a suicidal male who was hallucinating get up on a 2.5 story steeply pitched condo building (actually
@Robin's development) on a 90 degree day. I was the OIC as patrol sergeant. After an hour of talking to him out a window (one of our Millennial officers), I learn that mom delayed calling as we (Raritan Township PD) had used force the last time her son went off his meds, so in actuality he's already been up on this roof for 4 hours. He's clearly unstable (both mentally and physically) and dehydrated.
I call for Crisis Intervention, the mobile outreach behavioral health agency in Hunterdon County. I shit you not, the dude shows up, talks to him out the window for 10 minutes, and tells me, "hey, he won't come down...there's nothing I can do." Well FML.
I call FD who sets up a ladder truck to access the roof. I make the decision to NOT walk onto the roof as it could mean a tussle and an officer AND the BH patient end up rolling off the roof. I make the call to wait him out, knowing he could trip and fall off the roof anyway. We maintain contact and give him some food and water.
All while Mom is still barking at me about "you all better not beat up my boy".
5 hours on scene, and he finally came down on the ladder truck safely and he was transported to hospital for evaluation.
I earned my pay that day. No good decisions to make. It worked out but could have easily gone badly and ended up on the news.
OH, and he gets to the hospital and the dude had a horseshoe tied to his penis. I have no explanation for this. But you want me to reason with people like this? LOL, I try but it's kinda hard sometimes.
And I did write up the officers on scene (2) who interacted with the BH patient for commendations. Which kills me because they don't take the K-cups out of the machine at the station but can stand on a ladder truck for 5 hours being heros.