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Human Rights Commission Minutes <br />September 19, 2012 — Revised Draft Minutes <br />Page 8 of 13 <br />315 <br />316 Police Chief Mathwig commented that Crisis Intervention Training (CIT) had been completed <br />317 by five of the department's 48 officers. He explained this involved 40 hours of training "r� <br />318 paid €e� through a grant. The training was completed three years ago and has been passed along <br />319 to all new officers. He stated the Department recently hired a professional to come in to provide <br />320 eight additional hours of training to all officers on creating greater awareness of inental illness, <br />32] on how to assess and deal with mental illness, and on how to handle those with mental illness in <br />322 crisis situations. He indicated that 20-30% of alllaw enforcement contact was with those dealing <br />323 with mental health issues. <br />324 <br />325 Police Chief Mathwig stated the department has a number of training courses that were mandated <br />326 by the State. Mental Health was not one of the mandated courses, but the department was going <br />327 above and beyond State mandates in this area. <br />328 <br />329 In response to a question Police Chief Mathwig said Jonathan Bundt was the mental health <br />330 expert. <br />33l <br />332 Commissioner poneen questioned how often the department conducted mental health training. <br />333 Police Chief Mathwig stated this was the first time he attended mental health training sponsored <br />334 by the department, as this was not a State mandate. He indicated the anti-stigma training was <br />335 new to him and he was interested in learning more about this training. <br />336 <br />337 � Chief Mathwig then reviewed the information the department received regarding this case <br />338 stating the individual was going to kill himself that day. At the scene, officers found�k€ a young <br />339 man sitting on his bed with a pistol in his lap. He commented that the goal of the officers was <br />34o then to contain the situation and keep the neighborhood safe. The young man t� failed to <br />341 communicate with the officers and until the person was separated from the gun, certain avenues <br />342 must be followed to gain control of the situation. <br />343 <br />344 Chair Grefenberg asked if the department knew the pistol was a toy gun. Police Chief Mathwig <br />345 did not ���� know this until after 11:00 p.m. after the search warrant was ��e <br />346 secured. <br />347 <br />348 Ms. Moen did not feel this was true as her husband told a op lice sharp shooter at the scene it was <br />349 a toy gun . . She questioned if the mentally ill should have toy weapons <br />35o removed from the home. Police Chief Mathwig stated he was told by one or two of the <br />351 neighbars that they thought the weapon was not real. However, this was not certain to the <br />352 officers and operation has to continue until all facts are known. T�,° ^��;�°r *�,^* �^«, *�,° �;�*^' ;� <br />353 <br />354 <br />355 Mr. Partico thanked the Chief for making a good point about the importance of separating the <br />356 individual from the weapon. In most circumstances this may be true; however, in this case, the <br />357 police department was dealing with a mentally challenged individual. For this reason, an <br />358 individual trained to manage this situation should have been brought in. He stated <br />359 communication broke down and the young man shut down. <br />