Calls more about coping than crime
City officers say fewer social services, more drug abuse have changed their jobs
New London— On a recent afternoon shift, Police Sgt. Lawrence M. Keating responded to the parking lot of a pharmacy on Ocean Avenue. A man had run up to another cruiser and said he was “wanted,” but a search by dispatchers for the man’s name and his date of birth turned up nothing.
It’s 9:47 p.m. and about 25 degrees outside, but the man was wearing only a black T-shirt, black jeans and one shoe. He started to cry as he squatted against a police cruiser.
“I don’t want to be around people,” he told the officers.
He said he was struggling with drug addiction, is on methadone and was having trouble getting into a treatment program.
Keating asked him how he got the bump on his head and the bloody nose. “I did it to myself,” he said. Keating asked the man whether he wanted to get checked out and talk to somebody. The man agreed and was placed in the back of Keating’s cruiser. In the entryway of the emergency department at Lawrence + Memorial Hospital, he admitted that he had fought with his brother.
A nurse asked him, “What’s wrong today?” He responded, “I’m alive.”
Eventually, both the man and his brother would be charged with breach of peace for getting into a fight.
“I suppose it’s a sign of the times that people feel less comfortable approaching neighbors, roommates, unknown people or even family members to resolve an issue or to help.” NEW LONDON POLICE SGT. LAWRENCE M. KEATING
“We split the difference,” Keating said. “He gets a summons but also the help that he needs.”
On this shift, it seemed Keating acted more as a counselor than an enforcer.
He said he got into police work because he always wanted to help people. He grew up in New London and has a fondness for the city. But police work isn’t easy, especially when there is a national focus on strained relationships between officers and the public.
“The main thing I would like people to know about police work is that we are human too,” Keating said. “Look past the uniform and you will see a person who has emotions, fears and stresses just like everyone else. We may have days where we go to 20 or more calls, and those calls may run the full range from helping someone with a minor issue to investigating the death of a child. ...
“We do our best to keep our heads up and keep helping people, but sometimes it does affect our normal personalities.”
Special training
Keating said “psych” calls are becoming more commonplace in police work. He attributes his ability to recognize and help when a person is in crisis in part to his 15 years on the force and in part to the training he has received as a Crisis Intervention Team officer.
“I have noticed that we are doing less crime- based police work and more calls for service or helping to resolve all types of disputes, and with people in crisis,” he said. “I suppose it’s a sign of the times that people feel less comfortable approaching neighbors, roommates, unknown people or even family members to resolve an issue or to help.”
The New London Police Department in 2001 was the first in New England to implement CIT training in its department. CIT-trained officers respond to crisis calls for people with mental illness, work with mental health care providers and use various strategies to achieve the best outcome.
Keating says CIT training is about de-escalating a situation, and that is helpful in responding to all sorts of other calls.
“You have to read a situation,” he said. “It teaches you that if a technique is not working, to change it until you find something that works. Listening to what they are saying will get you really far.”
New London Police Department’s CIT cadre has 24 members. Capt. Brian M. Wright, coordinator of the program, said the team includes dispatchers, patrol officers, supervisors and command staff. One to three times a week a CIT liaison/clinician will go on patrol with a trained officer.
“The great thing about CIT training is that it’s applicable to all types of calls ... any time a person is in crisis,” Wright said.
He said the closing of Norwich State Hospital, reductions in social services, undiagnosed mental illnesses and drug abuse have led to an increase in calls for service that are not necessarily crime-related.
Last year, the department responded to 445 mental health calls; in 2013, to 472; and in 2012, to 509 calls. The numbers, however, don’t reflect disturbance calls or domestic violence calls where CIT services were rendered, Wright said.
When an officer is dispatched to such a call, a CIT officer is sent if one is available. If not, the responding officer can request follow-up services from the CIT officer or liaison.
Louise Pyers, executive director of Connecticut Alliance To Benefit Law Enforcement, which provides the CIT training, said the program is about better understanding mental illness and how to relate to a person in crisis. But officers say they are using the skills learned in their 40 hours of training in everyday police work, she said.
“Their ( officers’) safety comes first,” Pyers said. “They have to make sure the scene is safe. But part of it is slowing it down from the beginning. Being a little less forceful, because officers are taught to use a command presence, but in some cases it doesn’t work.
“The challenge is how to look at it ... assess the safety of a situation and come in with a listening attitude, listen to the person, get some sense of the frustration and reflect that frustration back. Just doing that can slow things down.”
Pyers said a companion pilot program called New Face of Law Enforcement, Communication Strategies for First Responders was tested in March in New Haven and is in the process of being evaluated for possible use in other police departments.
“We kept hearing that the officers wanted something like the CIT concepts done for the general public,” tact the landlord with information about the situation. He told them to stay away from each other, but if the situation escalated to feel free to call them again.
As a street sergeant supervisor, Keating can roam the entire city. He is not confined to patrolling one of the city’s five policing sectors. There’s a lot of driving, sometimes 6½ hours straight. Patrol officers are on the lookout for aggressive driving, motor vehicle infractions, dangerous conditions or any other violations of the law.
Keating’s first call on this particular shift had been a garage fire reported at 3:47 p.m. on Blinman Street. He turned his lights and sirens on. He moved his head back and forth, looking out for oncoming traffic or pedestrians. He needed to get there fast but safely.
He used his cruiser to block the intersection of Blinman and Truman Street to oncoming traffic.
Keating allowed a worker doing roof repairs at the corner Laundromat to move his vehicle and return because he needed more supplies. A woman driving a car also wanted to get into the street, but Keating stopped her.
The woman drove off, but not before giving him a dirty look.
“You see, it’s a matter of perception,” Keating said. “She’s wondering why I let him in and not her. She doesn’t understand the situation.”
Keating’s next call, at 5: 03 p. m., was for a report of a drunken man at a Moore Avenue residence. The woman there said she wanted the man, whom she called Mike, to leave. He was intoxicated, belligerent and jovial all at the same time.
Mike agreed to leave and started to walk in the middle of the road. One officer said to him, “Use the sidewalk, Mike.” Mike swore at the officer but complied and continued on his way.
“You see it goes from laughter to swearing at you ... despite one’s best effort,” Keating said.