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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2017-11-14 Euless ArticlesBeing bedridden makes home repairs almost impossible, but this charity can help BY LENA BLIETZ lblietz@star-telegram.com EULESS The memories came flooding in, as Tracey Boyle watches dozens of volunteers rip off the roof of the house where she grew up. “Seeing life come back into it, it’s exciting,” Boyle said. But the volunteers aren’t novices. They’re Dalworth Restoration employees teaming up with the nonprofit 6 Stones. Through its Community Powered Revitalization, or CPR, program, the charity renovates or repairs the homes of Northeast Tarrant and Cleburne residents who cannot do so themselves, often because of financial or physical restrictions. Boyle's parents' home is the 200th home the organization has done work on in Euless. “Well, this is a special house because we’ve been hearing about this house for months, as a matter of fact," said Scott Sheppard, CEO of 6 Stones Mission Network. Boyle helped her parents apply for the volunteer help, after her father, Preston Hazard, was involved in a devastating motorcycle accident last May. The wreck left him bedridden, with extensive injuries including brain trauma. “With the encouragement of a lot of church friends, we went to 6 Stones. We knew that this was something that we needed," Boyle said. She described her father as a former Scoutmaster and lifelong volunteer, and a man who would rather give than recieve. “It’s the world’s greatest collaboration. We have businesses, citizens, school districts -- everyone is partnering because we all want to make a better community," said Linda Martin, Euless mayor. In addition to the new roof, the Hazards’ home received new caulking, sealing and a fresh coat of paint. The volunteers helped with the yard work. “We were really overwhelmed when we found out the amount of things that they were willing to do, and very excited that they were going to do so many things because it really took the amount of pressure, and a lot off our list of things that needed to get done for them,” Boyle said. “What we’ve learned through the whole process is, if you help one family in need, generally the entire neighborhood looks at that one house, and says, 'You know, that house is looking pretty good. Maybe my house needs a coat of paint, or maybe I need to trim some bushes now too.' And it has an impact on the entire neighborhood," Martin said. “I am very grateful, we are all very, very grateful for this opportunity for them," Boyle said. Two-hundred of the homes 6 Stones has renovated are in Euless, but in total, the charity has done work on over 600 homes in the area. New industrial park breaks ground near DFW Airport Developers have broken ground on a new industrial park on the south side of DFW International Airport. Cabot Properties of Boston and Dallas Stream Realty Partners are building the International Logistics Center near the intersection of State Highway 360 and U.S. Highway 183. The 40-acre business park will include more than 640,000 square feet of warehouse space. "The site's visibility and location, paired with the experience and dedication of the teams involved, have set this project up for success," John Terrell, Vice President of Commercial Development for DFW Airport, said in a statement. "The DFW Airport team is excited to have a new partner in Cabot and Stream, and we are looking forward to more projects with them in the future." Peinado Construction is the general contractor and GSR Andrade Architects designed the project. Cabot Properties has been in business since 1986 and has properties with more than 167 million square feet. We can police mentally ill homeless people with empathy, not jail "I don't have ID," Floyd is saying, "they won't let me into the shelter without ID." Welcome to a Monday in the Hurst, Euless and Bedford Behavior Intervention Unit, the BIU. Floyd, a clinically depressed, 64-year-old homeless Euless man, is speaking with Officer Casey Sanders and Ken Bennett of the BIU. On weekdays, Sanders and Bennett, a clinician, seek out people with disabilities, like mental illness, to check on their welfare. They are part of a team of certified Texas Mental Health Peace Officers paired with clinicians, who patrol three cities. They don't diagnose, but they are trained to gather the right facts to connect a person who has a mental illness and might be in distress with health professionals. The idea is to proactively help this population get care before problems become crises that result in crimes and jail time. The program is uncommon and may well be unique, and the approach is making a significant difference in North Texas by averting mental health crises, reducing the numbers of mentally ill in jails, and understanding better the community officers serve. "When you get out of the hospital," Bennett tells Floyd, handing him a card, "call this number. We'll pick you up, and drive you to homeless outreach. They'll help you get an ID so you can get in the shelter and back on your feet." "Thank you, man. I've even thought about killing myself," Floyd says. "How would you do it?" Bennett asks. "I'm probably gonna hang myself." "OK," Bennett says, "we can get you some help." Sanders, who has known Floyd for more than a decade, said Floyd's been shot, stabbed, and run over. "He's a fighter," Sanders said later. "For him to come out and say, 'I'm depressed, I'm suicidal?' That carries a lot of weight." Euless Officer Casey Sanders (left), andan EMT (right) speak with Floyd (center) about his options before transporting him to JPS. (Nick Selby/Special Contributor) New mission of policing There are ten times more people with serious mental illnesses in America's prisons and jails than in state mental hospitals, according to a 2014 report from the Treatment Advocacy Center. Some of our nation's largest psychiatric in-patient clinics are in county jails in Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York. "The clients we're dealing with are not treatment- or med-compliant," Bennett said, at BIU's Hurst storefront office. "They might have a history at a local mental health clinic, but they're no longer in services. Now they're coming in contact with law enforcement." We in law enforcement are incredibly bad at communicating important trends like this. Don't get me wrong, cops will gripe. But it's not in our nature to complain about the mission. And mental health has become a big part of the mission of policing. The BIU is an expansion of a program begun almost a decade ago as a joint effort between Tarrant County My Health, My Resources and Hurst police. Three years ago, when it was expanded to build on the success of Hurst's program, the BIU's mission was to increase jail diversion: bringing mentally ill people with minor charges to mental health services instead of jail. About one in four people arrested in this country, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, suffers from both severe mental illness and drug or alcohol abuse disorders. "Our jail population this morning was 4,100," Tarrant County Sheriff Bill Waybourn said, "and 25 percent of those people are mental health patients; they're on mental health meds." The day was not unusual. How mental illness became a police problem America's mental health situation is the result of cuts by Republican and Democratic administrations during the past 50 years. In the early 1960s, when asylum stays were measured in years, President John F. Kennedy sought to move mental patients from asylums to community mental health centers. But after Medicaid launched in 1965, the funding never fully materialized. "State hospitals at that time were seen as barbaric," Bennett says. "They were unsanitary, people weren't being treated humanely. Many people wanted de- institutionalization." In 1980, the Carter administration passed the Mental Health Systems Act, to expand community mental health centers. But President Jimmy Carter lost his re-election bid. For the second time in 17 years, a president couldn't follow through on broad mental health legislation. Reagan-era policies led to more cuts. Those, and rulings against involuntary commitment without a specific danger to the patient or others, opened the floodgates. Millions moved from mental hospitals to streets and parks, and the contemporary homelessness problem was upon us. Policies have shifted on things like reimbursement rates and reduced duration of outpatient treatment. Phrases like Medicaid Match, trans-institutionalization, and other government gobbledygook are responsible for reduced care, and there is a wild differential in state hospitalization rates based on how each state plays the game. President Barack Obama spoke of major advances in mental health care under the Affordable Care Act, but those are primarily governed coverage by private insurance carriers, not funding of mental health services for the indigent. And with insufficient funding for hospitals, and a homeless population rife with mental illness, self-medication, and desperate poverty, jails have become America's largest mental health providers. The reality today is that the first responders to mentally ill people in America aren't doctors or clinicians, but cops. Officer Casey Sanders (left) and BIU Mental Health Coordinator Ken Bennett patrol a neighborhood in Euless in the Euless Police Department patrol car. (Nick Selby/Special contributor) De-escalating with empathy Whenever cops make mistakes and people get hurt, people understandably become upset. But how can police get it right? "I guess the first thing is to be very non-threatening," said Officer Sanders. "To establish that you're there to help them. You want to establish some rapport, where you can change their behavior, and that all begins with empathy." This is one of the most vivid examples of how, in law enforcement, we can argue about policies, transparency, and oversight, but these are intimately human, dynamic, inter- personal encounters. Unlike most clinicians, Bennett has negotiated, face-to-face, with armed suicidal people. When he spotted Floyd in J.A. Carr Park, they had a long conversation before Floyd admitted being suicidal. Floyd didn't ask for help. Actually, his most pressing problem was broken ribs: Floyd could barely breathe and was wheezing. Bennett noticed a hospital band on Floyd's wrist and suggested the BIU transport Floyd back to John Peter Smith Hospital for treatment before going to homeless outreach. Then Sanders recognized Floyd — Floyd's appearance has changed over the past decade. Sanders' face lit up. He was genuinely happy to see Floyd. And I saw Sanders exude the empathy he had described. Even when he patted down Floyd for weapons, the officer continued a light-hearted chit-chat that Floyd responded to with openness and trust. One of the biggest problems the BIU faces is diverting people to mental health facilities when there are no beds available. The question administrators ask most often is: Divert to where? The question became more relevant this year when the Texas Legislature passed the Sandra Bland Act, which shifts responsibility for caring for the mentally ill back to Texas' mental health care system. Whether Texas has the capacity to handle a major influx of new patients is a troubling, unanswered question. Sheriff Waybourn recently emailed all Tarrant County police chiefs: If you have someone mentally ill in jail, transport that person to the county jail's MHMR unit. "We'll take 'em," Waybourn said. "We can get them straight into services, so they don't de-compensate." (Decompensate means to lose the ability to maintain normal psychological demeanor and revert to anxiety, delusions or even plain depression.) As I interviewed Sheriff Waybourn in his office, a labradoodle puppy wearing a tactical harness trotted into the room and placed her muzzle on his leg. The puppy, Corporal Nova, is the jail's comfort dog. Finding enough beds Waybourn's solution for inmates is great. But finding a hospital bed for a mentally ill person who doesn't need to be in jail is very challenging. An officer can take an hour signing someone in to Tower Ten, a room at John Peter Smith filled with recliners and people milling around, waiting for disposition. It can take a lot longer if the client needs medical attention first. The client will sometimes wait a day or more to get one of 96 beds, only to be sent out to the lobby to wait four to eight hours to get back in, and then start waiting again. And in Tower Ten, decompensation means time is important. Floyd was admitted to JPS. We learned later that he was released because some thought he was just seeking drugs. In an overcrowded system, a patient sees emergency medical technicians, an admitting nurse, an emergency room doctor, a psychiatric nurse, a psychiatrist, and along the way, the system is trying to weed out and triage. Of course they're suspicious of people. And also, by the time all those people got to see him, he had been fed for the first time in three days. He'd had some morphine, so his pain was more bearable. Maybe he wasn't as suicidal as he was when we found him in the park. Or maybe he suckered us. Neither Sanders nor Bennett care. To them, a mentally ill man needed physical and psychiatric help, and they brought him to it. I think about the will-power it took for Bennett to envision and create a job and a strategy no one asked him to create; to convince the chiefs of police, the city council, the mayors and the lawyers of three cities to try something so new you can't even agree on how to measure success. And think about the risks that all those officials took in moving forward at all. There was no political penalty for sticking with traditional policing. They built the mental health group anyway. "This can be a very emotional job," said Bennett. "Every call you deal with is someone who's mentally unstable. We can't save everyone. But if we do our jobs and we're proactive, we'll probably save more than if we just took a reactive approach." Election 2017: School and city bond packages, constitutional amendments BY ANNA M. TINSLEY atinsley@star-telegram.com NOV. 7 ELECTION Aledo school district Propostion A: Is a $64.2 million bond program that would pay for a new 900- student middle school to alleviates space limitations and allows for future growth while allowing for a new sixth-eighth grade student configuration. It would allow the district to re-purpose Mcanally Intermediate into an elementary school. Proposition B: Is an $.8.7 million bond program that would fund increased learning spaces for the agricultural and career/technical programs, including additional barn space and barn renovations. This proposal includes funding for future land purchases to meet building needs. Bedford Bedford voters will decide whether to spend $70 million on a bond package to improve the Boys Ranch Park. The bond package, called Phase Next would pay for a new multi-generation center focusing on senior citizens, family activities and events. Other improvements call for a new aquatics center and new athletic fields. Benbrook Water Authority Board of Directors Four people are vying for three spots: David Hafer, Dennis G. Lindgron, Rick Whitehurst, Dave Clark. Eagle Mountain-Saginaw Voters will decide on a $524.7 million bond program to build a fourth high school, purchase land for future schools and pay for a new natatorium in partnership with the YMCA. That district projects an estimated increase of 3,300 students in the next five years. The proposed bond includes funding to pay for land for future schools. Euless Euless voters will decide whether liquor stores should be allowed in the city. Currently, Euless allows beer and wine to be sold for off-premise consumption but not hard liquor. Fort Worth school district There are two propositions going before voters in Fort Worth schools. Proposition A: Is a tax ratification election that has been described as a “penny swap.” The ratification would let the school district restructure its tax rate and move 2 cents from one tax pool to another — it’s called a tax swap — which district officials say will generate more than $23 million annually, including a boost in state funding. Proposition B: Is a $750 million bond proposal that will pay for a new elementary school to ease overcrowding at Tanglewood Elementary, land purchases for future schools, renovations at 14 high schools and the relocation of three specialty campuses. Grapevine Grapevine voters will decide on three bond propositions. Proposition A: $3.9 million bond calls for the expansion of the Grapevine Animal Shelter and Adoption Center which is 25 years old and lacks adequate outdoor areas. The shelter also is below national safety standards. Proposition B: Would fund the relocation and reconstruction of fire stations 2 and 3 for $16 million. The fire stations currently lack adequate living quarters and restrooms for men and women. The stations are over 35 years old and don’t have adequate space for trucks. Proposition C: Would pay for renovations and improvements to the golf course clubhouse and concourse for $4.8 million. Haltom City Haltom City is holding a special election for council Place 3. The candidates are Linda Thompson and Trenton Tidwell. Lake Worth The city will hold a special election to reallocate the sales tax. Richland Hills In Richland Hills, voters will decide whether to increase salaries of police officers and firefighters to the average amounts paid in surrounding cities including Hurst, Haltom City, North Richland Hills and Fort Worth. Voters will also choose a new council member to serve out the remaining term in Place 4. Lisa Lachance-Skier, Roland Goveas and Javier Alvarez are running. White Settlement Voters will choose the mayor and a council member in Place 5. Mayor, Ronald A White (i), Jerry Burns City Council Place 5 Dusty Pulliam, Greg Geesa TEXAS CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS Here’s a look at the constitutional amendments on the Nov. 7 ballot: Proposition 1: Partially disabled veterans, or their spouses, could get a partial homestead exemption for homes donated to them if they pay some amount for the home. Proposition 2: Home equity rules would change and restrictions on borrowing against it would ease. Some protections would also go away. Proposition 3: Gubernatorial appointees would face new term limits. Appointees now serve after their term expires until the governor names a new appointee. This measure sets deadlines, saying appointees can only serve until the last day of the regular session of the Legislature that begins after their term ends. Proposition 4: Would require courts to let the state attorney general know when there is a constitutional challenge to a state statute or law. Proposition 5: This expands the definition of a “professional sports team” to such organizations as the PGA and Texas Motor Speedway to allow them to hold 50-50 charitable raffles. Proposition 6: Surviving spouses of first responders killed in the line of duty would receive property tax exemptions. Proposition 7: Would let banks and credit unions hold promotions such as raffles to encourage customers to save their money. Voters OK Euless liquor sales, Grapevine building upgrades and Bedford park overhaul BY ANNA M. TINSLEY atinsley@star-telegram.com Voters in Euless at the Euless Public Library on Tuesday, November 7, 2017. Euless has a proposal on the ballot to allow liquor stores within city limits. Voters there also weighed in on constitutional amendments. Joyce Marshall jlmarshall@star-telegram.com Tarrant County Election Results Take a look at the polls as the Tarrant County election results from Nov. 7, 2017, are reported. This video will be updated as additional precincts release their numbers. Check back for final numbers. Local proposals to allow liquor stores in Euless, expand an animal shelter in Grapevine and reallocate sales tax in Lake Worth were among the measures appeared headed toward victory late Tuesday. But a plan to boost the salaries of police and firefighters in Richland Hills to match salaries in nearby cities failed. Seven constitutional amendments touching on issues such as 50-50 charitable raffles and allowing tax exemptions for spouses of first responders also appeared headed toward passage. Here’s a look at how issues on the Tarrant County ballot were faring late Tuesday evening, according to unofficial, incomplete election results. Local issues Bedford: A $70 million bond package to improve the Boys Ranch Park, to pay for a new ballfield, aquatic center and multipurpose event facilities held on to a narrow lead, with 51 percent in support and 49 percent opposed, with 12 of 12 precincts reporting. Benbrook Water Authority: Three people are being chosen for the board of directors. A look at where the votes stood with eight of nine precincts reporting: David Hafer, 31 percent; Dave Clark, 25 percent; Rick Whitehurst, 23 percent; and Dennis G. Lindgron, 21 percent. Euless: A plan to allow liquor stores in Euless was headed to a strong victory, with 81 percent of voters in support, with 14 of 15 precincts reporting. Grapevine: A look at the three propositions: Two handily won — a $3.9 million bond package to expand the Grapevine Animal Shelter and Adoption Center drew 81 percent in support and a $16 million bond package to move and reconstruct two fire stations drew 88 percent in favor. The third proposal, a $4.8 million bond package for a multi-use facility and clubhouse at the Grapevine Municipal Golf Course, narrowly passed with 50.17 percent support, with all precincts reporting. Eleven votes separated the measure’s success or failure. Haltom City: Linda “Lin” Thompson was elected to fill the unexpired Place 3 City Council seat, claiming 63 percent of the vote to Trenton Tidwell’s 37 percent, with all precincts reporting. Lake Worth: A plan to reallocate the sales tax was approved with 65 percent support, with all precincts tallied. Richland Hills: A plan to boost the salaries of police officers and firefighters to the average amounts paid in surrounding cities including Hurst, Haltom City, North Richland Hills and Fort Worth was rejected, as 73 percent of voters turned it down, with four of four precincts reporting. And in the race for the unexpired term of Place 4, Roland Goveas won with 60 percent of the vote to Lisa Lachance-Skier’s 24 percent and Javier Alvarez’s 16 percent, with all precincts reporting. White Settlement: Mayor Roland A. White won his re-election bid, claiming 54 percent of the vote to 46 percent for Jerry R. Burns, with all precincts reporting. And Gregg Geesa handily won the race to fill the unexpired Place 5 council term, claiming 58 percent of the vote to Dustry Pulliam’s 41 percent, with all precincts reporting. Calvary Baptist Church was one of the polling places in Euless on Tuesday, November 7, 2017. Joyce Marshalljlmarshall@star-telegram.com Constitutional amendments Here’s a look at how constitutional amendments were faring statewide, according to unofficial and incomplete state election results. Proposition 1 Partially disabled veterans, or their spouses, could get a partial homestead exemption for homes donated to them if they pay some amount for the home: 86 percent for, 14 percent against, with 5,220 of 7,212 precincts reporting. Proposition 2 Home equity rules would change and restrictions on borrowing against it would ease. Some protections would also go away: 70 percent for, 30 percent against. Proposition 3 Gubernatorial appointees would face new term limits. Appointees now serve after their term expires until the governor names a new appointee. This measure sets deadlines, saying appointees can only serve until the last day of the regular session of the Legislature that begins after their term ends: 83 percent for, 17 percent against. Proposition 4 Would require courts to let the state attorney general know when there is a constitutional challenge to a state statute or law: 66 percent for, 34 percent against. Proposition 5 This expands the definition of a “professional sports team,” which would allow more sports organizations — such as the PGA, Texas Motor Speedway and minor-league professional sports teams — to hold the 50-50 charitable raffles: 60 percent for, 39 percent against. Proposition 6 Surviving spouses of first responders killed in the line of duty would receive property tax exemptions: 85 percent for, 15 percent against. Proposition 7 Would let banks and credit unions hold promotions such as raffles to encourage customers to save their money: 60 percent for, 40 percent against. Texas Cops Forge Different Approach to Policing Mentally Ill Euless, Tx police officer Casey Sanders (l) and mental health coordinator Ken Bennett. Photo courtesy Eulesss Police Department. An extraordinary effort is underway in three Texas cities to proactively police the mentally ill. The Behavioral Intervention Unit (BIU) in the cities of Hurst, Euless and Bedford, in the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan region, is based on a modified Crisis Intervention Team program developed about a decade ago by local mental health coordinator Ken Bennett and the Hurst Police Department, which sought better integration of mental health clinicians and police. The Behavior Intervention Unit builds on that by deploying teams of clinicians and cops who patrol each weekday, seeking out those with mental illness to intervene before there is a crisis. You can hear the unit in action in a special episode of the biweekly Quality Policing podcast, which I produce with Prof. Peter Moskos of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. The BIU addresses a problem faced by law enforcement throughout the United States: As mental health funding has been cut and cut, not only have police become the first responders to mental illness in America, but jails have become our asylums. As communities seek to divert people from jail to the mental health system, they increasingly find that there are simply no beds available in the mental hospitals. So, in a nation without mental health resources and a strong desire to divert the mentally ill from jail, the question becomes, “Divert to where?” Our Quality Policing podcasts cover issues of good policing, spurred by news developments around the U.S. In this episode, we meet Floyd, a suicidal and homeless 64-year old man with broken ribs, as he is being helped by the BIU. We hear how Floyd is transported to the county hospital for mental health observation, patched up physically, and we follow his journey towards homeless outreach and help. Soon after, we meet Colt Remington—yes, that’s his real name— an officer who, after talking down a suicidal man holding a gun to his own head, and convincing the man to put the gun down and get some help, was disciplined by his supervisor for not shooting the suicidal man. This continuum—from the absolute wrong way to the absolute right way—is representative of how “mental health policing” is done in America. Sadly, there are many more police agencies on the left side of that continuum (the reactive, “we’re-cops-not- social-workers” side). The episode spells out why. It explains how this is a bipartisan mess. Neither Democrat nor Republican administrations have done “better” at coping with the problem of mental illness. Every president since Lyndon Baines Johnson has cut funding to mental health care in America. The results should concern all of us: There are ten times more seriously ill patients in America’s prisons and jails than in state and community hospitals. But in Texas, we can point to examples that can be models for policing nationwide. The story of this story began about six months ago, when I began speaking with Ken Bennett, the mental health coordinator for the three Northeast Tarrant County suburban police departments. I had been looking to highlight the wide variation in police department responses to mental illness. Most agencies are still reactive. While many have embraced CIT training, very few have displayed the boldness of the Hurst/Euless/Bedford plan. Particularly impressive was the proactive determination shown by the three cities and their leaders in establishing the program. As I say in the podcast, there was no political cost to not implementing the Behavior Intervention Unit’s program. There were several inspirations for the program. First, I recognized that the Sandra Bland Act, signed into law by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott in June, could have a profound impact on how the U.S. handles mental illness. The law requires jailers who learn of a patient’s mental illness to transport that patient to a mental health facility. But in writing about it—in the National Review and, along with Texas Mental Health Peace Officer Colt Remington in USA Today—I realized we needed to hear the people, to humanize the story. Ken Bennett arranged for permission for me to ride out with and record the BIU teams in October, 2017. First, we received a briefing from Tarrant County Sheriff Bill Waybourn. “Our jail population this morning was 4,100; and 25 percent of those people are mental health patients,” he said. “They’re on mental health meds.” Additional research added weight to our program. The National Alliance on Mental Illness should be everyone’s first step when researching mental illness in America. I spoke with current and former hospital staff at John Peter Smith Hospital near Fort Worth, as well as police, EMTs, and mental health attorneys. Texas media have also done some great reporting. One example: Bud Kennedy’s work in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram . But it was on the street that the challenges to police officers became clear. “The first thing is to be very non-threatening, to establish that you’re there to help them,” Euless Officer Casey Sanders told us. “You want to establish some rapport, where you can change their behavior, and that all begins with empathy.” Unlike most clinicians, Ken Bennett has negotiated, face-to- face, with armed suicidal people. When he spotted Floyd in J.A. Carr Park, they had a long conversation before Floyd admitted being suicidal. Floyd didn’t ask for help. Actually, his most pressing problem was broken ribs: Floyd could barely breathe and was wheezing. Bennett noticed a hospital band on Floyd’s wrist, and suggested the BIU transport Floyd back to John Peter Smith Hospital for treatment before going to homeless outreach. Then Sanders recognized Floyd—Floyd’s appearance has changed over the past decade. Sanders’ face lit up. He was genuinely happy to see Floyd. And I saw Sanders exude the empathy he had described. Even when he patted down Floyd for weapons, the officer continued a light-hearted chit-chat that Floyd responded to with openness and trust. I thought about the will-power it took for Bennett to envision and create a job and a strategy no one asked him to create; to convince the chiefs of police, the city council, the mayors and the lawyers of three cities to try something so new you can’t even agree on how to measure success. And I also thought about the risks that all those officials took in moving forward at all. There was no political penalty for sticking with traditional policing. They built the mental health group anyway. “This can be a very emotional job,” said Bennett. “Every call you deal with is someone who’s mentally unstable. “We can’t save everyone. But if we do our jobs and we’re proactive, we’ll probably save more than if we just took a reactive approach.” If you’d like to hear more, I invite you to listen to Sheriff Waybourn, Ken Bennett and the officers on the teams. Our podcast is available for download here, and also available on iTunes, Stitcher and other podcast outlets.