WATERTOWN, N.Y. -- In a field where you have to deal with stressful and dangerous situations, you need to be ready for any event. That's why officers across Jefferson County have completed crisis intervention training.
"Emotional disturbance calls are found through research to be one of the more dangerous calls with regard to officer injuries, as well as injuries to the people suffering from mental illness," said Tim Ruetten, the mental health services coordinator for Jefferson County Community Services.
Twenty-five officers from the sheriff's department, Watertown Police, Fort Drum, and the New York State Police now all have crisis intervention training. The week-long training covered a variety of topics, from mental illness and to how subjects might be affected by drugs. Officers also learned about the many resources available in the county.
"It's so important for officers to identify, first of all, that they are dealing with someone with a mental illness, and then know what the options are beyond incarceration," said Jefferson County Sheriff Colleen O'Neill. "Arrest and incarceration has been kind of the go-to procedure because the options were so limited."
Even though training recently ended, some officers have already put the skills they learned to use.
"[A man] was having some issues. It was his first time coming into jail. Some severe depression ... I used some of the key issues we went through in training and was able to talk to him and calm him down," said Jefferson County Corrections Sergeant Nicholas Cuppernell.
Overall, officers say they now feel more confident about handling these situations in the future, thanks to this training. Officials say the ultimate goal is to train about 20 percent of each law enforcement agency in Jefferson County.