ATHENS, Ga. -- The Athens-Clarke County Police Department will soon be able to better respond to incidents that may involve people suffering from mental illnesses.
The department announced Monday that it has received a $300,000 grant from the Department of Justice to train their officers how to manage mental illness crisis calls. Funding for the grant will last for two years.
"The department is really excited about it, the fact that we are able to get our officers trained," said Athens-Clarke County Police spokesman Epifanio Rodriguez.
The announcement comes in the wake of the Georgia Supreme Court's decision to allow the trial to proceed for a DeKalb County officer accused of killing a naked, mentally ill veteran back in 2015.
PHOTOS | Anthony Hill
PHOTOS | Anthony Hill
According to the department, whenever officers respond to a mental health crisis call, a mental health professional will go to the scene with those officers. The professional will then asses the individual's needs and provide recommendations to the officers on scene.
The grant also allows the department to provide extensive mental health training for sworn officers, criminal justice professionals and other first responders, in case a mental health professional is not available to respond.
11Alive's Ron Jones, himself a former officer in for the Oakland Police Department, spoke to the department who said the training will be a crucial element to add to the officers' tool box in dealing with a mental health crisis.
"We're going to be able to hire a person who is actually a certified clinician to come into the police department, who is going to be working with the police department and will be a resource when we go out to calls dealing with people who are in a mental health crisis," Rodriguez said.
The department made it quite clear that the mental health crisis would not be an excuse -- if a crime has occurred, there are still consequences, however, the crisis will be taken into account.
