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OGDEN -- The man stood in the field holding a machete to his throat.
"Place the weapon down, sir," the officer shouted to him, her gun drawn.
"Go ahead. I'm gonna die anyway!" he shouted back.
As she approached him, Riverdale police Sgt. Karen MacIntosh tried to get the man to open up. Little by little, she was able to draw out the story of his life. He was depressed. He'd been doing drugs and drinking.
"You're a little stressed?" she asked.
"Found out I had HIV, lost my job, shooting up again, drinking. So there you go," he said.
Police officers were trying to diffuse the volatile situation in a reality-based training scenario as part of an ongoing training put on by the Crisis Intervention Team. The group trains police officers on how to deal with people with mental illness.
Given the events of the past week, the training was timely. In southern Utah, police said Brian Cardall was tasered by a Hurricane police officer responding to a call for help.
Family members said Cardall was apparently having an episode of some sort. He had been suffering from mental illness for some time.
The Crisis Intervention Team is a coalition of police officers and mental health professionals who provide a week's worth of intensive training on mental illness. The goal is to help officers quickly figure out what is going on and help diffuse a situation before it gets worse.
"With an understanding of somebody with a mental illness, they're able to deal with it more effectively," said Jed Burton of Weber Human Services.
It culminates in a series of scenarios where officers must figure out the situation and diffuse it.
Sometimes, the scenarios end peacefully. Other times they do not. Their superiors and mental health professionals stand by as the actors interact with the officers, to offer tips on what worked and what didn't.
"The idea is once they go back out on the street, hopefully their mind will click back to this time in this academy. They'll know what'll work and hopefully have a better resolution," said Salt Lake City police Detective Ron Bruno, the coordinator for the CIT.
After about 10 minutes of engaging him in a dialogue, MacIntosh managed to talk "Dave" into dropping the machete and surrendering. In another scenario, officers had to tackle a woman to get her into custody.
MacIntosh said the training has given her new ideas of how to approach people when she's called out for help. "Maybe a bit more soft, more approachable," she said.
E-mail:bwinslow@ksl.com
