SC bill seeks mental health training for officers

Dec. 16--Law enforcement in South Carolina would get more training in dealing with people having a mental health or substance abuse crisis under a bill that the state General Assembly could take up next year.

State Sen. Vincent Sheheen, a Camden Democrat who has made two runs for governor, pre-filed a bill on the issue this week. The proposed legislation mirrors a measure he introduced late in the Legislature's last session that died in committee.

"We've got a real crisis in many of our hospitals and detention facilities where people who suffer mental health problems are dumped," Sheheen told the Herald-Journal on Thursday.

The proposed legislation would require the S.C. Law Enforcement Training Council to create a crisis intervention training center and for every county to have at least one crisis intervention team.

The state center would oversee training of police officers and sheriff's deputies.

"The goal is to be proactive rather than reactive," Sheheen said. "Law enforcement intends well, but they don't have the equipment or training to handle a situation when it's not a criminal problem, but a mental problem. It's not their fault."

Mental health advocate Paton Blough of Greenville said he met several times with Sheheen as the bill was put together.

"This solves some of the policing issues ... and gives people help and hope," said Blough, a member of the National Alliance on Mental Illness. "It's about human kindness. It's giving officers more tools -- not taking away Tasers or guns -- to possibly de-escalate a situation and help the person in crisis avoid injury and maybe themselves an injury."

Blough said the bill, if passed, would help fulfill a goal of the "Stepping Up" resolution that Spartanburg County Council approved in July.

Stepping Up is a national initiative that brings together county leaders, jail administrators and mental health health professionals to develop an action plan for reducing the number of inmates with mental illness. Spartanburg County Councilman Michael Brown successfully proposed the county be a part of that initiative.

Blough said that although Greenville County has a crisis intervention team, most counties do not.

"One of the goals of CIT training is to encourage safe, de-escalated arrests of individuals who are showing symptoms of mental illness," said Blough, who has trained several police officers.

Brown said he also met with Sheheen while the bill was being developed.

"It's long overdue," Brown said. "It's a needed bill. As you see, there are a number of situations in our court systems that unfortunately have a mental health aspect to them."

Brown and Blough said they are hopeful the General Assembly will pass the bill because both Democrats and Republicans realize that having more officers trained to deal with mental illness and drug abuse can lead to better outcomes and reduced pressure on jails.

"It will help keep people out of prisons," Blough said. "It's exciting to see solutions that work being promoted in the state from both sides of the aisle with the support of advocates and police departments."

Sheheen said he hopes a hearing will be scheduled on his bill in early 2017.

"This is certainly not a partisan issue at all," he said. "We've all seen these sad situations when law enforcement comes in contact with a mentally ill person, where nobody is a winner and everybody is a loser. This supports law enforcement and the mentally ill."

___

(c)2016 the Spartanburg Herald-Journal (Spartanburg, S.C.)

Visit the Spartanburg Herald-Journal (Spartanburg, S.C.) at www.GoUpstate.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.