Actors, mentally ill aid NYPD training

Associated Press

NEW YORK

A woman called Emily, tears streaming down her face, stood on a ledge threatening to jump. For 15 minutes, a police sergeant used the common thread that connects them – they’re both mothers – to gradually talk her out of killing herself.

The scene, played out earlier this month at the New York Police Department’s training facility, was an act – part of a training program meant to help patrol officers in the nation’s largest department better handle the growing number of interactions they have with people in emotional or mental distress.

“Even though it’s a scenario, my hands are like this,” said a shaking Sgt. Cecilia Luckie after talking to Erin Shields, the actress portraying Emily. “My mouth is dry.”

Patrol officers such as Luckie are often first on the scene to the 911 calls and on-the-street pick-ups of people in crisis .

Police received more than 130,000 so-called “emotionally disturbed person” calls last year – about 23,000 more than in 2011, an increase experts say mirrors a national trend resulting from too few supportive housing options and services in the wake of a decades-old deinstitutionalization movement.

Advocates for the mentally ill have long complained that hard-charging officers, tactically trained to issue commands and take control, have unnecessarily escalated situations that can sometimes end tragically.

At least nine people killed by the NYPD since 2007 had mental illnesses, according to Carla Rabinowitz, of the nonprofit Community Access.