Police Chief Larry Scarber presented ribbons to three Snowflake Taylor Police Department (STPD) employees at the June 5 Snowflake Town Council meeting. Scarber presented ribbons to dispatcher Brittany Liston, K-9 Officer Jeff Whipple and Officer Moses Ramos for their completion of 40 hours of crisis intervention training. “I am pleased to present our first three graduates here,” said Scarber. Scarber also took a moment to introduce the new K-9, Doc, to the council.
Scarber said, “Law enforcement has been involved in a number of interactions with persons who are experiencing a mental health crisis and some of these, too many of them, don’t go well. They don’t go well for the person in crisis, they don’t go well for the officer and they certainly don’t go well for the municipality, county or state who is involved in the liability of some of these incidents.”
The training provided skills to help the STPD better respond to persons experiencing a mental health crisis. This is the first time that this type of training has been held in the White Mountains. Previously agencies would have to send employees to the Phoenix area to complete this type of training and travel expenses made it costly.
This training was made possible with sponsorship from ChangePoint Integrated Health, Steve Julian the Navajo County Criminal Justice Coordinator and the Northeast Arizona Police Association. Fifteen officers and dispatchers from three area law enforcement agencies completed the training. Show Low, Snowflake Taylor and Winslow Police Departments all participated.
Instructors with specific expertise in course subjects were brought in from Flagstaff and Phoenix in addition to local experts. This training is designed to assist officers in recognizing if persons are suffering from mental illness, techniques to deescalate the situation, and provide for the safety and well-being of the officers and citizens they encounter.
