23-04-2025
Mobile Public Safety putting increased emphasis on mental health intervention
MOBILE, Ala. (WKRG) — Members of the Mobile Police Department are increasing the visibility and use of specially trained officers to help respond to mental health calls. It's part of an effort to add to the tools available to keep people safe and sometimes get people the care they need.
When it comes to people in a mental health crisis, in many cases, having a specially trained police officer and a mental health expert can work better than a beat cop and a night behind bars.
I caught up with Officer Austin Guffey, he's a Mobile Police Detective who's also gotten special training to be part of the city's Crisis Intervention Team. Tuesday, I was with him when he and a doctor from Alta Pointe were asked to check on a man on the street to see if he needed help. At least while I was there, the man declined, but it's part of repeated contact they have to try and connect people with the help they may need.
Police officials say last year they had more than 2000 calls for mental health services and that's an undercount. Officials say they can't arrest their way out of this issue.
'That's never going to be the solution. In fact, sometimes when they go into, you know, a jail or prison or something like that, when they come out, their mental health is actually worse,' said Officer Austin Guffey with the Crisis Intervention Team. Ideally it's a two person team going to help.
'We want a system where when you call 911, it's police, fire, EMS or mental health, and if there's no weapon involved, that response should be from a mental health clinician,' said Dr. Cindy Gipson with Crisis and Justice Involved Services at Alta Pointe.
In addition to wrapping their mental health response vehicle in a new logo, they're also increasing crisis intervention training–and distributing more I-pads to those an officer doesn't have a clinician partner from Alta Pointe with them the tablet is there to allow them to get someone to talk to the person who may be having a mental health crisis and also offering counciling in the moment to the officer if they experience something traumatic.
'A lot of the normal police tactics may aggravate the situation when you're dealing with the mental health. These officers are trained to de-escalate far beyond where the normal officers are trained to do it,' said director of Public Safety Robert Lasky. The director of public safety says it's a chance to take a wholistic approach to protecting the public.
'Just an added understanding of how that officer needs to respond out to a mental health call. Our mental health officers will be dedicated to responding to those calls in their precincts, as opposed to an officer who's not trained in CIT,' said Deputy Director of Public Safety Curtis Graves.
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