OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) – Mental health-related calls have Omaha police dealing with the delicate balancing act between individual rights and community safety.
OPD does have a crisis negotiating team to deal with those situations and solve them in a peaceful manner. That team of officers are trained and work with professionals in an effort to keep the person in crisis and the community safe.
Five years ago, mental health professional Shelly Poole answered a call with an Omaha police officer. A person was having a mental health crisis. Poole is able to help de-escalate the situation. No one is injured.
Omaha police said a mental health crisis can cover a variety of situations ranging from issuing a criminal warrant, domestic violence calls or a life or death situation.
“We have a high volume of mental health calls. That’s kind of a nationwide thing right now, something we’re seeing in our society so that’s a bigger part of what we do than maybe it has been in years past,” said Lt. Joe Nickerson with the Omaha Police Department.
Lately Omaha police had to deal with situations that turned violent. Shots were fired. Officers were injured. Citizens were shot. Some died. In the aftermath it could be police who need the mental health care.
“Whenever people are involved in critical incidents we have them meet with a psychologist and go through that process. Make sure they’re handling the trauma and things appropriate and working through that and get them healthy and back to a good spot,” Nickerson said.
He said most of the time the mental health crisis can be handled by simply listening.
“Sometimes people just need to be heard and if you give them time to be heard and be seen and valued for who they are beyond the situation they’re dealing with that can open up a lot of good avenues to a peaceful resolution,” Nickerson said. “What we ultimately hope for.”
When a crisis is peacefully handled, the work doesn’t stop there. Often times police follow up with the person who needed help.
“Just check on them. Hey how are you doing? Can we provide you with any resources? Connect you to any long term help? And that’s actually helped decrease some of the calls and also decrease some crime,” Nickerson said.
Omaha police crisis negotiators go through intense training and often work with mental health care professional co-responders.
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