Report: NYPD Mental Health Training Requires Better Implementation
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- The NYPD has trained about 5,000 officers on how to handle calls involving mental crises, but executing the training has hit a snag.
As WCBS 880's Rich Lamb reported, Department of Investigation Commissioner Mark Peters praised the crisis intervention training, aimed at stabilizing and deescalating mental health incidents.
Police handle about 400 mental crisis calls a day and developed the four-day training program in 2015 to help officers handle the calls.
"The NYPD has done a very good job creating a training program that gives officers increased skills in how to deal with people in mental crisis," Peters said.
But Peters said 911 operators have no way to know who the nearly 5,000 newly-trained officers are.
"The NYPD now needs to make sure that when calls come in, the officers who got this training are the ones assigned to respond," Peters said.
A report on the issue was published Thursday by the DOI's Office of the Inspector General for the NYPD.
The NYPD is looking at the suggestions, and the DOI has asked it to have a plan in place within 90 days.
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