KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Overland Park Police Department is making changes to its protocol as it introduces a new behavioral health unit by 2022.
Members of the unit would be dressed in plainclothes and respond to mental health issues, along with Johnson County Mental Health co-responders, according to Chris Newlin, Ward 6 councilman.
Newlin, chairman of the city’s mental health task force, said the department also has changed its policy on how officers should engage with moving vehicles.
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Newlin told 41 Action News police officers cannot shoot at, or from, a moving vehicle unless someone in the vehicle is threatening officers or civilians with lethal force, such as someone shooting from a moving vehicle.
If the vehicle itself is the “weapon” threatening officers, they cannot shoot. Instead, officers would move out of the path of the vehicle. The only exception is if the vehicle is being used as a weapon of mass destruction.
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OPPD Chief Frank Donchez announced the changes Tuesday night at a mental health task force meeting, according to Newlin.
This is a change one woman has called for since the death of her son. Sheila Albers' son, John, was shot and killed by police in 2018 after backing up the family's minivan toward officers in his family's driveway. Officers were initially called to the home on a welfare check.
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OPPD responds to, on average, seven mental health calls a day, and Newlin said that number is growing amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Additionally, everyone in the department, including Donchez, will undergo crisis intervention training.
