Toronto cop opens up about mental health
TORONTO — Thirty years of serving the community have taken a toll on Scott Mills, leaving him with physical and psychological scars that may never fully heal.
But the retiring Toronto Police officer hopes sharing his experiences — as a cop dealing with people in crisis and as a citizen on the receiving end of a negative encounter with officers — may help others at a time when community-police relations are badly strained.
“I hope cooler heads on all sides prevail and the proper go-forward strategy finds the leadership necessary because there are some things that work right now and some things that need to be changed,” Mills told the SUN.
He has been stabbed twice in his career — once as a young cop with Peel Regional Police and once as a Toronto cop.
The first incident, he and his partner responded to a domestic call where a man had assaulted his wife. He was attempting to handcuff the man when he was suddenly struck in the head with a meat cleaver. Being in close quarters and knowing there were two kids in the house, Mills said he never considered drawing his gun.
Fortunately, his partner was able to disarm the man.
“She saved my life,” Mills said. Years later he was walking the beat in Kensington Market with a partner when they encountered a man who had run over the hood and roof of a vehicle and appeared to be armed with a knife.
“He wanted to die of suicide by cop,” Mills remembers. “He kept telling me to shoot him.”
Shooting the man was not an option.
Mills managed to tackle him. but as they fell to the ground, the man plunged what turned out to be a metal peg into the back of Mills’ neck.
“It definitely could have killed me,” he said. He returned to work after both incidents without any counselling.
Only decades later did Mills realize being stabbed, witnessing the aftermath of fatalities and other traumatic incidents were all connected to his two failed marriages and a mental breakdown.
“The trauma I endured as a cop eventually caught up with me and I ended up in mental health treatment,” he said candidly.
Mills’ encounters with Halton Regional Police officers — a matter that is still before the courts — while trying to get support for his mental health allegedly caused additional and significant trauma.
In the wake of his own struggles, Mills is convinced cops need to get help after any traumatic incident.
“The last thing we want is a broken cop dealing with a broken member of the public,” he said.
Mills also maintains police must to do everything possible to reduce the risk of a violent confrontation when it comes to dealing with a people in crisis.
He’s been developing an idea he calls “real-time crisis ” that would see a nurse, or mobile crisis intervention team, working in the police operations centre with cops, conducting wellness checks via social media and by phone.
“Often people just need someone to talk to,” he explained.
“They don’t need police officers at their door.” Unfortunately, Mills said, there will always be calls where tensions are high or weapons are involved that officers will need to respond to.
“But it can’t just be all cops and it just can’t be all social workers or nurses,” he said. “Collaboration is key. We can do better together.”