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CALL A SOCIAL WORKER! CALL A SOCIAL WORKER!!!
Posted on: July 14, 2020 at 08:57:52 CT
Tigrrrr! MU
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CONSIDER THIS WHEN YOU SAY YOU WANT UNARMED SOCIAL WORKERS RESPONDING TO 911 CALLS AFTER YOU DEFUND YOUR POLICE DEPARTMENT (please read the entire post):
(Message From Acting Chief Wahl, Madison PD)
“An incident on Friday morning merits highlighting, as it illustrates the potential real-world consequences of political/budget decisions. Officers were sent to an address on the East side in response to an individual having a mental health crisis. The individual's therapist called and indicated that the man was throwing himself against the wall and threatening to harm himself. He had access to a gun, and indicated that he was intent on forcing officers to shoot him. Two young children were present.
Officers arrived and staged a safe distance from the home, to formulate a plan for contacting the individual. His distraught wife arrived at the scene, and an officer was able to make phone contact with the children – still in the residence – and ask them to exit. The children described their father as clearly being in a mental health crisis, acting in a violent and erratic manner. He had been demanding that one of the children get his gun for him; the child hid it instead (it was later determined to be a facsimile).
A short time later the individual walked out of the residence, holding a large butcher knife. He was shouting that the officers were going to have to shoot him and waving the knife. Officers maintained distance and did not engage the individual. He entered his vehicle, and drove at the officers' staging area at a high rate of speed. They took cover behind trees and vehicles, and the subject's vehicle stopped just prior to hitting a squad. The family was still present at the staging area, and the individual was less than 10 feet away from them where he stopped. He opened the door – while holding the large knife – and started to exit.
Now I'll ask you to pause and imagine this instant in time. A large individual, in a mental health crisis, armed with a knife, exiting a vehicle...mere feet away from officers and his family. Shouting at officers to shoot him and seemingly intent on forcing them to do so. They're in a residential neighborhood surrounded by occupied homes and uninvolved residents. What options do the officers have? In seconds, officers will have to make decisions that could have a profound impact on them, on the individual in crisis (and his family), on the community, and indeed on the nation. How will it end? Have we as a City done everything possible to increase the likelihood of a good outcome?
On Friday, it ended well. Officers deployed less lethal tools...a Taser and a 40mm launcher (firing a sponge impact round)...forcing the individual to drop the knife. He was then taken into custody (uninjured) and conveyed to a local hospital for a mental health evaluation. This was about the best possible outcome under the circumstances, and reflects fantastic work by the officers involved. It also wasn't an accident...it was a product of training, culture, policy, hiring, and having the right equipment (in the right place at the right time).
Here's where budget actions have consequences. I see no higher priority than doing everything I can as Chief to reduce the likelihood that MPD officers will be involved in deadly force encounters. One critical component of this is ensuring that officers have the right tools immediately available to them in a crisis. My goal is for every front-line MPD vehicle to have a less lethal launcher (40mm) in the vehicle, so we know that these tools will be readily available in a crisis when seconds count. MPD's 2020 budget includes funding to make progress towards this goal, and we have a small pilot program in place (doing testing and evaluation to determine the best platform, storage, etc.).
So why was there a 40mm launcher immediately available at this scene? You guessed it...one of the squads being used in the pilot program happened to be one who responded to the scene. That stroke of luck may have saved this man's life. This encounter could have had a very different outcome without the immediate availability of this important tool.
The current budget will not allow us to equip every squad with a 40mm launcher, and my efforts to secure funding for this purpose have been unsuccessful. I feel that as a City we owe it to the community to do everything possible to allow for positive outcomes in challenging circumstances like this, and providing our officers with the right tools is one critical part of that effort.”
#ChiefsBlog—> https://www.cityofmadison.com/police/chief/blog/?Id=22629
(Message From Acting Chief Wahl, Madison PD)
“An incident on Friday morning merits highlighting, as it illustrates the potential real-world consequences of political/budget decisions. Officers were sent to an address on the East side in response to an individual having a mental health crisis. The individual's therapist called and indicated that the man was throwing himself against the wall and threatening to harm himself. He had access to a gun, and indicated that he was intent on forcing officers to shoot him. Two young children were present.
Officers arrived and staged a safe distance from the home, to formulate a plan for contacting the individual. His distraught wife arrived at the scene, and an officer was able to make phone contact with the children – still in the residence – and ask them to exit. The children described their father as clearly being in a mental health crisis, acting in a violent and erratic manner. He had been demanding that one of the children get his gun for him; the child hid it instead (it was later determined to be a facsimile).
A short time later the individual walked out of the residence, holding a large butcher knife. He was shouting that the officers were going to have to shoot him and waving the knife. Officers maintained distance and did not engage the individual. He entered his vehicle, and drove at the officers' staging area at a high rate of speed. They took cover behind trees and vehicles, and the subject's vehicle stopped just prior to hitting a squad. The family was still present at the staging area, and the individual was less than 10 feet away from them where he stopped. He opened the door – while holding the large knife – and started to exit.
Now I'll ask you to pause and imagine this instant in time. A large individual, in a mental health crisis, armed with a knife, exiting a vehicle...mere feet away from officers and his family. Shouting at officers to shoot him and seemingly intent on forcing them to do so. They're in a residential neighborhood surrounded by occupied homes and uninvolved residents. What options do the officers have? In seconds, officers will have to make decisions that could have a profound impact on them, on the individual in crisis (and his family), on the community, and indeed on the nation. How will it end? Have we as a City done everything possible to increase the likelihood of a good outcome?
On Friday, it ended well. Officers deployed less lethal tools...a Taser and a 40mm launcher (firing a sponge impact round)...forcing the individual to drop the knife. He was then taken into custody (uninjured) and conveyed to a local hospital for a mental health evaluation. This was about the best possible outcome under the circumstances, and reflects fantastic work by the officers involved. It also wasn't an accident...it was a product of training, culture, policy, hiring, and having the right equipment (in the right place at the right time).
Here's where budget actions have consequences. I see no higher priority than doing everything I can as Chief to reduce the likelihood that MPD officers will be involved in deadly force encounters. One critical component of this is ensuring that officers have the right tools immediately available to them in a crisis. My goal is for every front-line MPD vehicle to have a less lethal launcher (40mm) in the vehicle, so we know that these tools will be readily available in a crisis when seconds count. MPD's 2020 budget includes funding to make progress towards this goal, and we have a small pilot program in place (doing testing and evaluation to determine the best platform, storage, etc.).
So why was there a 40mm launcher immediately available at this scene? You guessed it...one of the squads being used in the pilot program happened to be one who responded to the scene. That stroke of luck may have saved this man's life. This encounter could have had a very different outcome without the immediate availability of this important tool.
The current budget will not allow us to equip every squad with a 40mm launcher, and my efforts to secure funding for this purpose have been unsuccessful. I feel that as a City we owe it to the community to do everything possible to allow for positive outcomes in challenging circumstances like this, and providing our officers with the right tools is one critical part of that effort.”
#ChiefsBlog—> https://www.cityofmadison.com/police/chief/blog/?Id=22629
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CALL A SOCIAL WORKER! CALL A SOCIAL WORKER!!! - Tigrrrr! MU - 7/14 08:57:52