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Originally posted by Shox The Revenant
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When I was with the WPD, I made several calls for service to deal with mentally ill people. The most vivid example was at the QT at Harry and Hillside. When we arrived on scene, there was a very large, completely naked, African American woman holding a bible to her chest with both hands looking up into the sky in the middle of a rain shower. She wouldn't acknowledge our presence and wouldn't answer our questions. She just stood there naked getting rained on mumbling to herself. Back then, we were the first to deal with these types of people and once we determined nothing criminal was done, the person would be taken by ambulance to St. Joe's to be admitted into their mental intake.
These types of calls were pointless to have the cops involved. We're not trained to deal with these types of folks and we just had to 'wing' it so-to-speak. I'm not necessarily a fan of defunding the Police, but there needs to be a new process implemented where a city has a program or department made up of mental health professionals who could be called out to these types of calls instead of the cops.
Do any of you remember that dude in East Wichita nicknamed Crazy Mike? I had to deal with him quite often and the man got a bad rap. The cops were called on him and he called the cops to assist him numerous times. He lived in a home between 21st and 29th streets off of Rock Rd, if memory serves me correctly and his home had plywood over the windows because teenagers would often drive by his home and throw rocks through the windows. He had placed large rocks on the perimeter of his yard to stop the teenagers from driving through his yard tearing it up. One night he called the cops because some teenagers were harassing him outside his house and I had a chance to make idle chit chat with him while taking his report.
Before that night, the only thing I knew of Crazy Mike was what I heard as rumors, obviously I had seen him around often riding his moped or hang around downtown, but that night opened my eyes about this man. Speaking with him, he was articulate and sounded educated. He told me he had a Masters degree and his parents were well off and had purchased the home he was living in for him. He stated he was just your average guy but things went south after college in his mid to late 20's. He never told me specifically, but I gathered during this time he was diagnosed as being bi-polar. He did not always take his medicine for his condition consistently. That would explain his mercurial behavior - if he was off his meds, he'd obviously act strangely but the night I interacted with him, he pretty much acted 'normally'. I can't tell you how many times we had to interact with Mike and for the most part, these were non-incidents that really didn't need police involvement. Just another example of cops being asked to be mental health professionals when we shouldn't have to be.
I haven't seen that man in a long time, I had moved to KC after changing careers in the early 2000s but when I moved back to Wichita in 2007, I don't recall ever seeing him again. I wonder what ever happened to him oddly enough.
These types of calls were pointless to have the cops involved. We're not trained to deal with these types of folks and we just had to 'wing' it so-to-speak. I'm not necessarily a fan of defunding the Police, but there needs to be a new process implemented where a city has a program or department made up of mental health professionals who could be called out to these types of calls instead of the cops.
Do any of you remember that dude in East Wichita nicknamed Crazy Mike? I had to deal with him quite often and the man got a bad rap. The cops were called on him and he called the cops to assist him numerous times. He lived in a home between 21st and 29th streets off of Rock Rd, if memory serves me correctly and his home had plywood over the windows because teenagers would often drive by his home and throw rocks through the windows. He had placed large rocks on the perimeter of his yard to stop the teenagers from driving through his yard tearing it up. One night he called the cops because some teenagers were harassing him outside his house and I had a chance to make idle chit chat with him while taking his report.
Before that night, the only thing I knew of Crazy Mike was what I heard as rumors, obviously I had seen him around often riding his moped or hang around downtown, but that night opened my eyes about this man. Speaking with him, he was articulate and sounded educated. He told me he had a Masters degree and his parents were well off and had purchased the home he was living in for him. He stated he was just your average guy but things went south after college in his mid to late 20's. He never told me specifically, but I gathered during this time he was diagnosed as being bi-polar. He did not always take his medicine for his condition consistently. That would explain his mercurial behavior - if he was off his meds, he'd obviously act strangely but the night I interacted with him, he pretty much acted 'normally'. I can't tell you how many times we had to interact with Mike and for the most part, these were non-incidents that really didn't need police involvement. Just another example of cops being asked to be mental health professionals when we shouldn't have to be.
I haven't seen that man in a long time, I had moved to KC after changing careers in the early 2000s but when I moved back to Wichita in 2007, I don't recall ever seeing him again. I wonder what ever happened to him oddly enough.
You make great points.
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