Police lacked information
will be studied for their effectiveness in collaboration with Cedar Crest to establish the Police Center for Innovation and Community Engagement, Granitz said.
Allentown Councilman Darryl Hendricks said the city’s commitment to training officers around issues of de-escalation and handling mental health crisis predates the national discussion. He said bringing in civilian professionals to help police when appropriate is a great tool, but should not be used as a reason to cut back on police staffing and funding.
Upper Macungie Township police also have been working with social service organizations in Lehigh County to identify individuals who are at risk and take steps to candidly discuss their problems and put them and their families in touch with social service providers who can help, Lt. Peter Nickischer said. Upper Macungie is also working with Cedar Crest College to evaluate the program and its suitability for other police departments.
Geoff Brace, chairman of the Lehigh County commissioners, said another part of the equation is funding. The county is investigating whether money can be used from the American Recovery Act, and whether some of it could come from savings in criminal justice costs.
“If we see 20 fewer people incarcerated each year, you’re talking about a couple hundred thousand dollars in savings,” Brace said. “I’m of the mind that every dollar that we save in incarceration costs we put into some kind of mental health or community-based preventative activity.”
While a successful program could save taxpayers money, the most important saving, Brace said, is “something we can’t put a dollar sign on — a human life.”
Shirey, 27, was diagnosed as schizophrenic as a teenager, and although his parents disagreed with the diagnosis, they had been trying to get him to seek behavioral health treatment. He also had been involuntarily committed to a mental health treatment facility seven years earlier, according to a report on Shirey’s shooting by the Lehigh County district attorney’s office.
When the officers responded Feb. 19, only one had been to the home before and each was unaware of Shirey’s history. After they learned that Shirey had assaulted his ex-girlfriend and locked himself inside the house, they tried unsuccessfully to persuade him to come out.
Shirey retreated to the basement and didn’t respond to further efforts by police and his father to speak with him. Aware that Shirey might have access to a rifle and a bow and arrow, police entered the basement with their weapons drawn. They didn’t know that Shirey had a revolver, and when Shirey charged officer Joelle Mota with the gun raised, Mota fired five shots, fatally wounding him.
In a letter issued Tuesday, Lehigh County District Attorney Jim Martin ruled the shooting was justified.
In another recent case, state police shot and killed 19-yearold Christian Hall, who was suicidal, as he walked toward police on an Interstate 80 overpass with a replica pellet gun in his hand. An investigation found Hall called 911 himself to report a possibly suicidal person and that he had been in contact with law enforcement previously through the juvenile justice system. The Monroe County district attorney’s office found the Dec. 30 shooting was also justified.
Brubaker, of the CAHOOTS program, said that co-responder programs won’t prevent every tragedy and that police must respond when there’s a threat. But in some situations, social workers can defuse situations that police might not. Brubaker recalled one instance where he spoke with a man having a violent episode inside his mother’s house, and got the man’s commitment that Brubaker would be safe if he went in without police.
“It shows how there is room for a different response where a uniformed officer just by his or her presence could retraumatize or escalate the situation,” Brubaker said.
In Shirey’s case, Martin said, police were responding to a call about domestic violence, and he doesn’t believe a social worker would be able to safely respond to such a call right away. Most of the facts about Shirey’s mental health issues were tied up in medical documents Martin said he had to subpoena to access after the shooting.
Shirey’s father, Karl, and his ex-girlfriend, Alyssa Adams, did not provide police with a clear enough picture of the gravity of Ryan Shirey’s mental health issues, including a diagnosis of schizophrenia, Martin said. No one mentioned that there was a revolver in the house.
“They had no knowledge that they were going into a situation like that,” he said. “If Catasauqua police officers knew he had a gun in the basement, they would not have gone into the basement. They would have called the Municipal Emergency Response Team with trained negotiators.”
Martin blamed the coronavirus pandemic in delaying any larger, countywide efforts on these issues. But he emphasized that no matter what programs roll out in the coming years, he will remain focused on safety first.
“I will not provide wholesale approval to having social workers go out on just any call,” Martin said. “I’d want to see what the plan is. I already have safety concerns for law enforcement officers and certainly would have a safety concern for civilians that accompany them.”