You need to know this if you ever have cop contact

DX'd - Other
1

There is a problem with Psych Trained police officer system I want to bring to your attention. These police officers are specially trained to respond to scenes where a mental care consumer is experiencing any kind of behavioral problem that could resort in arrest or threats of harm to self.

So unfortunately, some of these police departments are using this as opportunity to intimidate victims of crime and even jail victims at your own expense.

If you think you have been victim of any kind of crime, this Psych trained police officer will try to figure out where you work. If you say you are on Social Security or SSI, the officer will ask you a TON of questions about whatever is wrong to figure out if you are on SSDI/SSI. Then officer can try to threaten to lock you up anytime you have to call for a police officer.

If you think your home has been trespassed upon or you were victim of vandalism, some psych officers will try to threaten you with a psychiatric evaluation. This hospitalization is usually at your own expense and can last months even if you are acting okay. Most lose their job and some go homeless after this. Honestly, it is useless to report these situations unless the place was ransacked or lots stolen. Anything else could result in a forced detention at your own expense. Home insurance doesn’t pay for stuff busted, warranties are only solution or reduce belongings to minimal level until the problem passes. Some end up just keeping smart phone and use computer at library if you want…Some don’t even eat at home until the fridge keeps resetting to freeze the food…Better to keep no money in house and keep RX glasses on you.

Burglar alarms are useless. Camera systems are usually broken immediately. Restraining orders are frequently denied or not enforced if even available. However, if you have a neighbor who witnessed the trespassing and you can connect the trespasser to someone you know using Facebook, you can call the cops to make a police report and ask how to get a restraining order for stalking. Some police departments will not even prosecute these trespassing situations. Your witness needs to give a written statement for you to use at court or attend hearing.

Really think twice before you call the cops to deal with crisis or at least give the right information so you don’t get in trouble. “I work at the Walmart over there.” I would NEVER explain you get disability payments unless you have a visible disability…Otherwise, you will subjected to a lot of angry people whose disability claim was denied, and a lot of retaliation in some locations.

If you get ‘labeled’ by police, even a move to next suburb will give you relief.

Cops do use this tactic to remove nuisances from the neighborhood as you will probably lose the housing if you get locked up long enough. If you do lose housing, your caseworker usually has access to some apartments specifically for mental illness consumers but better not to be this dependent on most of the government mental clinics IMHO.

2

Uh…I dont really understand. Im actually taking a class, crisis intervention, and yesterday I read a couple chapters and learned how they approach us, yes, us, the psychotic ones. It’s very methodical and they are trained to handle us without shooting us, at least Crisis Intervention Team officers are. However, they did say in the book that unmedicated psychotics are the “bane” of crisis intervention, which probably has to do with how psychotic people just cant be predicted well when they have crises.

I have been arrested by them and they were VERY professional about it. They sent seven cops, they surrounded me and one kept a distance and told me what was going to happen and phrased everything in a manner of what he could do FOR me instead of TO me.

My city has a great CIT program, though. It’s actually nationally recognized and was used as an example in the textbook…a case example of “Leroy” or some fake dude drunk standing in the middle of Union avenue with two broken whiskey bottles.

You sound a little paranoid, yo. The police send crisis intervention team officers to handle us. They are specifically trained to handle us.

I mean I am taking their class…

3

You are better off telling cops you are “working at Walmart” than on SSDI. Avoid a discrimination opportunity.

My burb has LONG history of hiding a sex abuser group and some new residents still get screwed out of here if they did not rent first…You just know where you live.

4

Uh…well yeah, it’s best for us to work if we can. That’s a little besides the point…

5

One time I was taken from jail for a spurious trespassing violation to a mental health center to have my mental competency evaluated. I was sitting in handcuffs in front of this woman, and she was asking me all these ambiguous questions about the legal process. It kind of reminded me of a voting competency test they gave black people who wanted to vote back in the days of Jim Crow. (One of my high school teachers had given us one of these tests. No one in the class passed it, and we were an advanced class.) Then she asked me if I wanted a plea bargain for my charges. Right, a plea bargain for trespassing, and I was sitting with handcuffs on and had no lawyer. Of course I turned the plea bargain down. Basically, if the police want to take you in, they are going to take you in, regardless of what the law says.