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Cops demand tasers for clashes with mentally ill

Published:Tuesday | February 9, 2021 | 12:23 AMEdmond Campbell/Senior Staff Reporter

Rank-and-file police personnel are requesting the provision of non-lethal weapons to manage explosive face-offs with mentally ill persons who are armed and dangerous, and which often have fatal consequences.

Chairman of the Police Federation, Corporal Rohan James, said the police have requested non-lethal weapons such as tasers when dealing with mentally ill persons who threaten and harm the public with weapons including machetes and knives.

He also revealed that the police have not received special training to deal with the mentally ill.

At a press conference last week, Hamish Campbell, assistant commissioner of Independent Commission of Investigations (INDECOM), reported that there were 35 incidents in 2020 involving the police where persons who possessed a weapon other than a firearm were shot and killed or injured.

Twenty-two of the incidents involved persons of unsound mind.

“In the majority of such cases, officers were summoned to assist in the disturbance, but action resulted in fatal or non-fatal wounding,” INDECOM reported.

Body-worn cameras

In a Gleaner interview, James said that the police have also requested body-worn cameras to carry out their duties transparently.

James pointed out that the use-of-force and firearm policy of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) dictated that lawmen seek to mitigate harm.

However, he said that when the police are attacked by armed persons, they should use sufficient force to repel the attack.

The Police Federation chairman told The Gleaner on Monday that members of the JCF would welcome support from the mental-health community to handle persons who are “acting up”.

“When the calls are made, the resources are not available, and so you cannot, as a police officer, whilst other persons can turn a blind eye and not respond to the situation, our police officers can be cited or charged for criminal negligence,” James said in relation to a mentally ill person who might be threatening to harm members of the public.

James encouraged the top brass at INDECOM to urge the Government to provide sufficient resources to the police so that they could respond effectively in tandem with mental-health personnel.

Head of INDECOM, Hugh Faulkner, told journalists last week that the oversight body was mindful of instances in which the police faced grave situations when they encountered mentally challenged persons who are armed.

However, Faulkner said that the police should seek to, where possible, de-escalate situations without discharging a firearm.

Nurse administrator at the Committee for the Upliftment of the Mentally Ill (CUMI), Joy Crooks, said that it was not difficult for the police to get support from mental-health professionals to deal with persons with mental disorders.

“If the police call the health centre and myself call the health centre, the police will get a response from the mental-health officer quicker than I will,” she told The Gleaner on Monday.

Crooks said that CUMI does not, legally, have the responsibility to respond to such calls without contacting a mental-health officer.

edmond.campbell@gleanerjm.com