Training police to respond to mental health crises

MPR News Staff
Training police to respond to mental health crises
A Roseville, Minn., squad car waits in front of an apartment building at 1610 Co. Road B., just east of Snelling Avenue, in the early morning hours of Thursday, Feb. 11, 2016. Roseville officers shot and killed a man inside the building the night before.
Tim Nelson | MPR News

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In the first of a series of programs on mental health in Minnesota, Tom Weber looks at police training for mental health crises.

According to The Washington Post research into police shootings, 12 men were fatally shot by police in Minnesota last year. Five of them showed signs of mental illness. How is - or how should - police response be different if the suspect has a mental illness?

Tom Weber talked with three guests during the hour.

• Janina Cich, COO for The American Institute for the Advancement of Forensic Studies

• Tony Cornish, R-Vernon Center, Chair of the Public Safety and Crime Prevention Policy and Finance committee in the Minnesota House of Representatives.

• Cole Birkeland, nephew of John Birkeland, who was shot and killed by Roseville police.

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