Lawmakers, Criminal Justice Experts Weigh in on New Mental Illness Training Requirement for Law Enforcement

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WOLO)- Lawmakers unanimously passed a bill in the house and senate that sponsors hope will lessen misunderstandings in the field of policing.

“Look, what we don’t want is for a life, whether it’s a law enforcement officer’s life or a member of the public who is suffering from mental health, to become endangered simply because of lack of training or understanding,” said Senator Vincent Sheheen.

The new law requires that all officers- ranging from those with full arrest powers to those with limited arrest powers- undergo the same training to identify the differences between people who are manic versus malicious. The state’s Criminal Justice Academy trains the officers. Major Florence McCants said a big aspect of the bill involves bringing veteran officers up to speed.

“The issue now is that we’re going to be reaching out to those 12-13,00 officers who are already working. Who have been in the streets and in the field for years so what we’re going to do now is kind of bring them back up through a refresher course but it’s ongoing training that’s now required. All before it was not required,” said McCants.

The academy uses their crisis intervention house to train using real life scenarios. McCants says this helps officers learn how to handle each situation.

“If you have three people who are dealing with depression, each one is going to be going through it differently and they’re going to handle it differently. You need to adjust the way you interact with them to handle it effectively. What you did with one won’t be the same thing that you do with two. You know that if you just kind of sit, listen and understand what’s kind of being said and how they’re acting,” said McCants.

The training counsel is still working to determine how long the sessions will be. The academy hopes to have most of the training done by this fall.