LEGAL QUESTIONS ANSWERED

CLICK HERE TO VIEW ALL LLRMI ARCHIVES

FOLLOW PATC/LLRMI

1. 
2. 
   
   Only $35 - Register Today!

Question Title: court requirements for police training on EDP's

E-Newsletter Edition: July 18, 2007

Always note that state law may be more restrictive on police power than the U.S. Constitution.

QUESTION:
Do you know how many hours the courts are requiring police departments to train their officers in the area of mental illness/emotionally disturbed persons?

_____

ANSWER:
I will tell you that the “best practice” presently available is the 40 hour CIT training that was modeled after Memphis, TN- The “Memphis Plan” is what everyone cites as the way to go- this involves a 40 hour block of instruction. The court cases, for the most part, have not criticized law enforcement on the length of instruction-but that may come. Bear in mind, that a lot of departments have not figured out the potential exposure in this area and as a result do not do any training at all. I hate to admit this, but the courts continually say, if you do something (even a little) you overcome the standard of care for training which is, deliberate indifference. If you do something, your trainers and agency have not been deliberately indifferent.