Lt. Andrew Johnson taught a course on disorders and impairments to 14 students during a four-day Conway Police Department Training Academy session this week.
The objective of the course is to familiarize new officers with different disabilities and disorders so they can be better prepared in handling them on the job.
“I do my best to touch on the major mental illness, mental disability, things that [officers are] going to deal with over and over. One thing that we talked about yesterday is that people that have mental illness or mental disabilities do things that cause other people to call the police because they don’t know what else to do,” Johnson said. “[Trainees] have to have a general idea at least of what’s going on and then what to do with it. At the very least we have to de-escalate it and get them to help.”
Johnson talked about autism and how to approach those with it, saying to “approach them from the front and make sure they see you.” He also said to make sure that when dealing with someone with autism, you have to make sure they understand who you are and what you do.
When it comes to non-verbal people, Johnson said officers must not pepper them with questions as this may overstimulate them. Only one officer at a time needs to speak with a non-verbal person.
He also went over how to deal with the visually and hearing impaired. If it is requested, officers are required by law to provide a hearing impaired person with an American Sign Language interpreter.
During the course, Johnson said that officers should never automatically dismiss mobility impaired individuals as suspects and to be mindful of any artificial limbs or wheelchairs.
“The No. 1 rule in dealing with anyone with any type of disability is to be patient with them,” Johnson said.
Johnson then went over a series of common mental health conditions, explaining what each of them is, how to deal with people who have them, and common medications that people with these mental illnesses may use. The main one he spoke about was schizophrenia.
The mood disorders that Johnson spoke about were depression and bipolar disorder. Both require similar de-escalation strategies, such as empathy and patience.
When it comes to dealing with someone with bipolar disorder, Johnson said to “keep them with you where you are, mentally and emotionally.”
Other topics included antisocial personality disorder, inadequate personality disorder, borderline personality disorder, narcissistic personality disorder, anxiety disorder, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and dissociative disorder.
While this specific course isn’t as detailed as the Crisis Intervention Training course, it still covers mental illness, mental health and what to look for when dealing with people who have these conditions.
Johnson has a bachelor’s degree in social work and a master’s degree in clinical counseling. He worked in the mental health field for 12 years before becoming a cop. He’s now been a cop for 12 years.
“I have developed my own de-escalation class that I teach across the state and I am CIT Train-the-Trainer certified. I am our negotiator team leader. I’ve been through the FBI’s basic and advanced negotiator schools,” Johnson said.
Trainees from Benton, Bryant, Conway, Searcy, Maumelle, Conway County and Faulkner County came together for the course.
The 40-hour CPD Training Academy is only a portion of crisis response that has been implemented in the area. The local community crisis response team gets four weeks of training for mental-illness related crises.
“Our dispatchers had some training on how to navigate those calls and when to send the Community Crisis Response Team versus just a patrol officer,” CPD Public Information Officer Lacey Kanipe said.
