WAUKESHA, Wis. — Every day, more than half of the calls that come into Waukesha Police deal with a mental health issue. In order to tackle those calls, the police department has added a second crisis counselor and police officer to their Crisis Response Unit. TMJ4 News reporter Rebecca Klopf rode along with the team to see just what the city is dealing with.
In the basement of the Waukesha Police Department sits a team next to the 911 dispatch center. They include a police specialist and a clinical therapist who work together to go out on mental health calls. We heard a call come in about a woman who had locked herself in a business bathroom and refused to leave. We arrived in plain white SUVs, with no police lights or even markings on the car, and went inside to talk to the woman.
"We are just going to stand right out here, okay,” said Police Specialist Sunny Schneider.
Today the team consists of both teams, Police Specialist Jason Fink and his partner, clinical therapist Anna Diaz joined by Schneider and her partner, clinical therapist Enjoli Varnado.
"A lot of times how the police call comes out can change drastically,” said Schneider.
On this call, I could see a woman peeking out of a business window. To protect her privacy we are not going to show you her face. But I can tell you she seemed afraid.
“I don't want to get in trouble,” said the woman to the crisis team.
She told them that her car broke down and she didn’t want to leave it. The team realized she is currently living in it, information she was hesitant to share.
“I had to confirm that I am a mental health professional. She said, 'Oh.' And there was some uncertainty there. That's speaking to 'Oh, something might happen, I might be forced into a hospital.' She is very paranoid and suspicious of what our intent is,” said Varnado.
The team spent more than an hour talking to the woman before she was finally willing to leave.
“Every solution we offered her, a shelter, our crisis stabilization unit, she was suspicious of,” said Schneider.
The Crisis Response Unit says half of all 911 calls in the City of Waukesha have a mental health connection. Last year, the price department had one officer and one clinical therapist dedicated to those calls. Now because of a federal grant, they have been able to hire another clinical therapist and dedicate a second officer. On average, a mental health call that leads to a commitment can take 10 hours.
"Those are cops sitting on a mental health only call for over 10 hours to try to get them from that originating mental health time to get them into that mental health facility,” said Schneider.
For this first call, the team successfully helped the woman get to a community center. A win, they say, because no one was arrested. As we wrapped up, we were sent to another call where a grandmother called 911 because of her teenage grandson’s behavior.
Dispatch: "She is afraid of him and just concerned for what he is doing."
The family told police the day before the teen had threatened to start a fire. Today, the team arrived and was able to quickly talk to all the family members and get the situation resolved.
"There was no legal action taken. It was what we would call advisement,” said Schneider.
And just like that, we were back on the street heading to the next call with the offer to everyone that the team spoke to, to call the Crisis Unit if they needed help.
"You are going to be okay. We are going to figure this out,” said Schneider.
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