Traditional enforcement strategies alone may not always be sufficient in these situations. As a police sergeant, I was charged with teaching a program on MGL Section 12 – mandatory 3-day hold for psychiatric evaluation. This was a normal practice in our department and at PDs in Vermont, where I sometimes taught. It was never well attended because at the time, nobody was interested in dealing with folks with developmental or mental infirmities. As time grew on, more and more calls for service required police using naloxone to restore life. And in some communities 50 % of call volume involved citizens with mental illness or chronic substance abuse. Police needed training and guidance for these calls growing number of calls for service. This is why I have endeavored to present ideas to better manage these encounters.

These five types of calls share several common characteristics:

• rapid escalation potential often due to substance use
• emotional or cognitive impairment
• suspected developmental disorder
• unpredictable behavior and threats
• increased risk to officers and civilians

Over time the Memphis co-response model of intervention has taken hold and evolved.

In 2018, I was privileged to ride with the San Antonio, TX Police Mental Health unit and by then I was hooked. I had read about the SAPD’s Mental Health unit in the Boston Globe. Officers Ernest Stevens and Joe Smarro were San Antonio police officers who set a high bar for teams who are dispatched to calls for citizens with known or suspected mental health disorders. Both officers are now retired and doing other things still connected to public service and human resilience. The HBO documentary about “Crisis Cops” shows some of their fine work and was filmed in the weeks before and after I was able to visit. My preference for this police response model has been shaped by my experience as a licensed psychologist and police officer. And more importantly, I support annual training and updates on tactics and best practices. Our chief often showed body cam video of encounters that went bad because of training deficits. This was frequently gut wrenching.

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Structured crisis-response models such as the LASD ROAR-360 model provide officers with additional tools to recognize behavioral crisis indicators, regulate their own physiological stress responses, and apply communication techniques that can reduce escalation when tactically appropriate.

This program is exclusive to Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department although its lead writer Dr. Pietro D’Ingillo, a deputy sheriff and clinical police psychologist teaches this program. For me, I cannot get enough of this training because each time I sit through a session or sessions, I learn something new. Each training officer has his or her own teaching style and experience and teaches their experience. I believe by hearing the message of safety and tactical awareness you can draw upon their experience and your own. This sets up so well when officers get in hot situations with a small window for error; the goal is to offer a class here in Massachusetts later this Spring.

By preparing officers for these high-risk encounters, departments can improve officer safety, increase successful de-escalation, and reduce the likelihood that behavioral crisis calls will result in serious injury or loss of life. Careful training informs good outcomes.

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“How Behavioral Crisis Calls Affect Officer Safety and Use-of-Force Incidents.”

Importantly, the ROAR framework also addresses a critical gap in traditional training: the ability to modulate response tempo. In many use-of-force incidents involving behavioral crisis, escalation occurs when interactions move too quickly for effective assessment or communication. ROAR explicitly trains officers to recognize when to slow an encounter to create time for de-escalation, and when to act decisively in response to imminent threat. This dual-capacity approach reflects real-world policing demands and enhances both officer safety and tactical flexibility. It would include statistics and research showing why departments are investing in programs like ROAR-360 and Crisis Intervention Team training.

Like all things, you get out of training what you put into it. As a sergeant I taught the in service on mental health. Officers hated it and often found it boring. But when the next call involved someone with bipolar disorder, having a base of knowledge, experience and compassion can result in successful jail diversion and inroads for needed treatment and enhanced community trust and law enforcement expertise and accountability. Please check in here for possible ROAR-360 training in the next few months.

Michael Sefton, Ph.D.