Police helpful...?

I read and hear more often now that the police are the last people you want to call when you have any “issue” with a mentally ill family member. What say you? Would you call the police for help with a mentally ill family member? I wouldn’t.

In most cases no. I might ask for a wellness check in a non-emergency but only after talking in person with police at the station about the situation and feeling confident that they were some good people going out there, if the wellness check could somehow help get assistance. If a family member was violent due to MI I would call an ambulance, not the cops. Even if the cops eventually got called I’d want an ambulance there first to drive it home that they are a victim, not a perpetrator.

I would not be alive if it were not for the police scraping my drunk arse off the pavement and getting me somewhere safe in years past. Haven’t had to deal with them as an SZ, but I’ve nothing but gratitude for them as a recovering alcoholic.

Where I live police aren’t routinely given firearms. Because of this I have no particular problem with seeking out the assistance of police. Not sure if the police carried guns though.

The police have a tough job - enforcing the law, which is fine with everybody until a person has the police enforce the law on him or her. Then you don’t like them. I think the police could be less emphatic about the way they enforce the law and use less force. But rightly or wrongly, when they stop you they have all the cards. It’s the wrong time to cop an attitude when you’re stopped by the police.
As far as having the police take custody of you for a mental health reason, that can be even worse, but not because of the police. I’ve been taken in before when my family called the police on me. Much of the time when a person is brought in on a mental health issue it seems to the person that he or she is being reasonable, and everyone else is being unreasonable. A lot of people get mad when they’re brought in on a mental health complaint. I know I have.

No it’s fine until the police don’t grasp mental illness or the situation and taser your angry manic loved one to the ground. The vast majority of the time there are better ways to handle a mental health crisis, but police are often not trained for that and are in the mindset of dealing with drunks and dangerous perps. They are often great for dangerous perps, but I wouldn’t want my paranoid SZ loved one handled like they are a violent criminal. There are a few gems out there, though, like this state trooper who likely encountered a speeder with mental health problems, notice how the man talks rapidly and in a confused fashion, possibly manic and very agitated, trooper handles it 100% professionally, very impressive:

if a family member started getting violent and out of control and threatening I might call the police. Who else are you going to call to help you?

If I had a kid who had a mental illness, I just might call the police department in my city ahead of time and check into how they handle crisis’s with the mentally ill and I would ask them what resources they have to handle mental health emergencies and crisis’s.

It’s very fine line to do this though, it takes a lot of tact you don’t want to raise bad feelings between you and the police by appearing critical or implying that you don’t trust them or that you have negative feelings about them or any other police officer. Leave your fears of misconduct by the police at your house and just be polite.

I wouldn’t tell my child I’m doing this to spare his feelings. And when I talked the police I would strongly emphasize that my child is not violent (if he isn’t) but that I am calling solely for info.

Maybe go online and find some history of your local law enforcement and maybe find a record of how they have done in psychiatric emergencies in the community if you can. If you (god forbid) find out that they have a bad reputation and a bad history for handling the mentally ill, then I might be worried and think of alternatives or other plans on what to do if me and my child ever have to deal with an out of control situation that we can’t handle ourselves. Anyway, these are my thoughts on the matter.

That cop must be on strong drugs.

It’s actually totally possible that he has to take psychotropic medication for his own issues, which mellows him out and also makes him more sympathetic to civilians with mental health issues.

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