NAMPA, Idaho — In one of Idaho's largest cities, police want to restructure how they help the growing number of people experiencing mental health crises.
"It's a huge number of our community that needs assistance," said Curt Shankel, Nampa Police Deputy Chief.
In the last five years, he said they have seen almost a 600% increase in calls with a mental health component. Most of the time, those calls are not law enforcement issues.
To take the load of patrol officers, better de-escalate situations and build better relationships with people so they get the help they need, Shankel said they need to add a Crisis Intervention Team.
They are asking the city to approve more than $75,000 during budget discussions this summer to hire a mental health coordinator.
"They would team up with one of our patrol officers, and they would work in tandem as a resource and go out and work with our community and help those in our community that might be in crisis," he said.
This would be the first Crisis Intervention Team in Canyon County. Most of the law enforcement agencies in Ada County already have at least one, including the Meridian Police Department.
Chief Tracy Basterrechea said they started a team in 2020 with two officers specifically trained in crisis intervention. They added a mental health clinician the following year, which is when they really saw the program "take off and become extremely beneficial" for the community.
Since its inception, he said their Crisis Intervention Teams has handled more than 50% of the department's mental health calls, which has freed up many of the officers to "do the things patrol officers should be doing."
"In order to protect your officers, in order to protect your citizens, in order to protect your city, I think it is a must to have a team like this," Basterrechea said.
The Idaho Chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, NAMI, helped bring crisis intervention teams to the Gem State more than a decade ago, board member Christina Cernansky said. One of the main goals is to keep people with mental illnesses out of jail and get them into treatment.
"Jail is not always the answer we want," Shankel said "That's not always the best option for the individual. But unfortunately, sometimes what resources we have, sometimes that's the only option we have."
People on Crisis Intervention Teams have to go through 40-hour training, which covers topics from what it is like to have schizophrenia to how to deal with a crisis when someone is on a bridge, Cernansky said.
"If we could intervene early and make sure that we have proper training for those that are doing these interventions, it is key to being able to thwarting individuals out of the system," she said.
The Crisis Intervention Team would not handle calls where someone is trying to hurt themselves or is armed. But Shankel said the team would look through calls patrol officers take so they can figure out if they need to follow up on something.
He said it is hard to see so many people call police for help.
"But at the end of the day, I'm glad they do," he said, "and I'm glad those resources are there. Now, I just want our agency to be able to respond and to be able to help those individuals and do a better service for them."
Watch more Local News:
See the latest news from around the Treasure Valley and the Gem State in our YouTube playlist:
HERE ARE MORE WAYS TO GET NEWS FROM KTVB:
Download the KTVB News Mobile App
Apple iOS: Click here to download
Google Play: Click here to download
Watch news reports for FREE on YouTube: KTVB YouTube channel
Stream Live for FREE on ROKU: Add the channel from the ROKU store or by searching 'KTVB'.
Stream Live for FREE on FIRE TV: Search ‘KTVB’ and click ‘Get’ to download.