Stressing the need for immediate action in the city, Madison Police Department Chief Mike Koval announced at a press conference Monday his initiative to combat mental health illness.
“I can’t wait anymore,” Koval said. “I’m tired of the rhetoric. I’m tired of the political posturing.”
The initiative, which creates five liaison Mental Health Officer positions, will assign one officer each to each Madison police district, according to Capt. Kristen Roman.
Roman described the five officers as a team that is knowledgeable about available mental health services and support systems in the community. Their role will be to support people from their district with mental illness, or with mental illness in their families.
“Each of them brings with them an array of experiences from previous careers and their time in patrol,” Roman said. “This is something that they are drawn to.”
Koval said he envisions MPD extending upon this type of engagement.
“We want to do more … because, quite frankly I haven’t seen a lot of assistance coming to me from the state or the county or through other means,” Koval said.
While the Mental Health Officer positions will focus much more concretely on mental illness issues, Koval noted that all police officers were qualified for crisis intervention.
“Each and every Madison police officer, detective and command staff has gone through profound and extensive crisis intervention training,” Koval said. “Rest assured, you’re going to have a very capable and caring individual working your case.”
According to Koval, the five chosen Mental Health Officers were hand-picked from competing applicants.
“They’ve got skin in the game,” Koval said. “This matters a great deal to them as well.”
Estimating conservatively that police work more than 2,500 crime incidents pertaining to mental health annually, Koval emphasized the necessity of new Mental Health Officer’s positions.
“As a sign of the times, we’re finding more and more people who are either undiagnosed, undertreated, or not getting any treatment at all and it’s creating all kinds of implications for family and for community,” Koval said.
