OVERLAND PARK, Kan. — In recent years, there’s been a spotlight on how police officers interact with those suffering from behavioral health issues.
In Overland Park, a new police unit that focuses on mental health has been a long time in the making.
The Overland Park Police Department responds to thousands of calls every month, but they said at least 400 of them have a behavioral health aspect.
Now, a new team will come in and with trained specialists to help with those calls.
“The whole goal of our unit is to put the right people in the right situation,” Sgt. Stewart Brought of newly-minted the Overland Park Crisis Action Team said.
Brought is leading the way for some Overland Park police officers to have a chance at a new cross-over position.
He calls it impactful policing.
“Our goal is when the 911 calls comes in, the patrol will go out, they get there and realize this is a behavioral health crisis, this isn’t a criminal issue and we can come in and take over,” Brought said.
Any mental health related calls that involve youth, veterans, people experiencing homelessness and even people that have substance-abuse issues, the Overland Park Crisis Action Team or OPCAT will respond.
Brought said they have their own logo and many hours of various crisis intervention training.
They’ve ditched the tactical uniforms and swapped them for something more subdued, brown pants and a black shirt.
The vehicle they’ll show up in is also plain, black and without large logos.
“Subdued uniform, a subdued vehicle they both equate to that, so we can have two cars out in front of somebody’s house without having a big, marked police car out in front,” Brought said.
Brought said they even have a therapy dog named Haven.
These changes, all in the hopes of providing trauma-informed care.
Brought said the unit wasn’t hard to staff.
“21 or 22 people applied to be in this unit and that’s super important to have people that want to do this kind of work,” he said. “This isn’t the kind of unit you just put somebody into, you have to have the heart to do this kind of work and it’s different than normal police work.”
Sheila Albers said she’s taking that as a good sign.
“I’m really proud that we had 22 officers that applied for 12 spots that to me says the culture is changing,” Albers said.
Her 17-year-old son, John, was killed by an Overland Park Police officer in 2018 after they were called for a welfare check.
Albers is still calling for transparency and accountability within the department but helped back the new unit.
“It’s clear they know how important this is, and they know this is going to save lives, that is the most important thing,” Albers said.
Officer Deion Coleman was also eager to join the unit.
“I love being with people in crisis to try and give them that ray of hope, if possible,” Coleman said. “If it is not possible to then try to steer them in the right direction if I can help at all. If we can just sit down and have a conversation you know it would kind of diminish that, ‘we can seize your right,’ but at this moment in time we are just trying to be here for you in your moment of crisis.”
“I think it’s a national trend, I think you’re going to see this across the nation, I think you’ll see it a lot more in the metro as well,” Brought said.
While a smaller team is working these calls now, Overland Park Police hope by the end of the year the unit will be in full swing, after other positions are backfilled.
