Brenda Carrasco pleads with officers about the police-involved shooting of Paul Castaway last month. Castaway was shot and killed by a Denver police officer while holding a knife. (Brent Lewis, Denver Post file)
Re: “When mental illness and police collide,” Aug. 22 guest commentary.
Many thanks to Scott Glaser of the National Alliance on Mental Illness Colorado for his guest commentary regarding the need for Crisis Intervention Team training for law enforcement officers. This type of training equips them to recognize and appropriately respond when encountering someone experiencing a mental health crisis. Such people are seldom a real threat to the police, but the wrong response on the part of the police can quickly and unnecessarily escalate the crisis.
In our church we have been studying mental health and found that virtually every church member has been personally affected by either their own mental health condition or that of a family member or close friend. What people in crisis need is appropriate intervention and treatment, not incarceration or, as is too often the case, serious injury or even death at the hands of inadequately trained law inforcement.
Nelson Bock, Denver
This letter was published in the Aug. 25 edition.Scott Glaser and NAMI Colorado are absolutely correct in describing so many situations where mental illness and the police are involved. However, they have done nothing to deal with the problem. They need to come up with a three-digit phone number akin to 911 that can be quickly accessed by people in trouble.
Most folks confronted by the threat of violence will dial the 911 number in the expectation that the police are trained to deal with the violence. They are; however, we shouldn’t expect them to have psychiatric training as well.
Providing “advice and support” through the 10-digit NAMI line is not adequate to help those folks facing an immediate crisis.
Harriet Rosen, Denver
This letter was published in the Aug. 25 edition.
Submit a letter to the editor via this form or check out our guidelines for how to submit by e-mail or mail.
