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The Aurora and Chicago Police Departments have created specialized redesigns to respond to 911 calls in the event of an intellectual fitness or behavioral crisis.
CHICAGO (WLS) – When a user is in a crisis of intellectual or behavioral fitness, a 911 call can become a crisis in itself.
So what happens when police, prison, hospital emergencies, or the use of force aren’t the most productive responses?
New systems with redesigned reaction aim to redefine poor, even fatal, outcomes.
To deal with the growing number of fitness crisis calls, the Illinois Police Department is adding social service systems to its departments.
Brain Solache benefited from such a co-response program in Aurora.
“I probably would have attacked just to force the officers to shoot me,” he said.
Solache was only 18 when he became so discouraged that he said he sought out police to shoot him. Instead, it convinced him to live.
Aurora police investigator Kaylea Young at the scene that day.
“The call came out of that it was an issue at the station with a possibility of suicide through a police situation. So we knew there was danger. We knew there was a gun there,” he said.
Solache explained that an argument with a member of the family circle and his uncontrolled intellectual illness blew him up. He had a knife and threatened to use it.
“I just broke. . . I’m done with everything. I got to this point where I got angry at everyone, everything, even myself,” he said.
The tense scene captured on police speed camera video in June 2021 when the distraught teenager threatened to kill himself at Aurora Station.
Among the officials who responded, the new Crisis Intervention Unit, or CIU, made up of specially trained police investigators and social workers.
The co-defendants spent nearly an hour and a half talking to Solache until he handed over the knife.
No one injured.
Aurora Police Department investigator David Guevara works in the unit with Young.
“He was given and we were part of that procedure and we would never have done it because it was nothing that had police disintegration, nothing that we are doing now,” Guevara said.
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In the midst of a crisis or as a component of a wellness follow-up, the Aurora Unit works to identify those served with an intervention.
The Aurora Police Department said that this year, the unit has responded to nearly a hundred more intellectual fitness calls than last year and, they note, non-emergency 911 calls have decreased.
Hortensia Fuentes, one of the social workers who works with the unit, said that while there were no exact numbers yet, they were seeing the benefits.
“We can see a drop in recidivism almost immediately. We have some of our regular customers who, by calling 911, call us,” he said.
In Haiti, the Crisis Assistance Response and Engagement, or CARE, pilot program has been underway for a year. It incorporated fitness professionals into the city’s 911 reaction system.
Matt Richards, deputy commissioner of behavioral fitness at the Chicago Department of Public Health, said the style that includes an intellectual fitness professional in the reaction to 911 frees police officers to deal with other vital matters of public protection.
“We relied too much on our colleagues in the police branch to answer those calls. When in reality, the fundamental need would be mostly addressed by a health professional,” he said.
City officials said the redesigned equipment pilot program serves Chicago neighborhoods that account for intellectual fitness calls above 911: Uptown, North Center, Lakeview, Auburn Gresham, Chatham West Englewood, West Elsdon, Chicago Lawn, West Lawn, Gage Park, West Garfield Park, East Garfield Park and Humboldt Park.
Tiffany Patton-Burnside, CARE’s senior director of crisis centers, said they present themselves to the network as a whole and the city.
“This van is crossing the district all day, so it’s not just waiting to be shipped through the OEM.
They are for other people who appear or may just be in need and who are in place or in sight,” he said.
The program has recently had a third team with one notable difference: it will feature a police officer.
“A team that is now comprised of a paramedic from the Chicago Fire Department network and a licensed physician,” said Jonathan Zaentz, special projects district manager for the Chicago Police Department.
“Obviously, whatever the event, it can go wrong and things can change, which is part of the explanation for why, in the scenes, we have the police aware of the fate of the vehicles. “
City officials enjoyed early success. Knowledge analyzed through the I-Team indicates that to date there have been no arrests or use of force. But, on average, the numbers show less of a reaction consistent with the day of the CARE teams.
“It’s about getting as many calls in one day as possible,” Richards added. “I think it looks like he can do it safely. I think as we move forward, we’ll start getting more and more confusing calls. “
On Auurora, Solache said he’s an absolutely different user and he’s doing well, but he’s not sure what would have happened without the reinvented intervention he won that day.
He needs others who are suffering to know that help is available if you are willing to ask for it.
“I’m very grateful to them, they dissuaded me. They kept me,” he said.
Officials expect those systems to continue to evolve, however, the two sets profiled said the systems will be limited by the lack of aftercare mental health facilities or treatment facilities. Both, they argue, are obstacles to offering long-term solutions.
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