By Suzie Ziegler
OKLAHOMA COUNTY, Okla. — The Oklahoma County Sheriff’s Office is using a new tool to help deputies respond to people suffering mental health crises: iPads.
According to FOX 25, each patrol deputy now has an iPad in their vehicle that they can use to video chat with a mental health professional 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
“If one of our deputies is out on a call and somebody is in a mental health crisis or having some type of mental health issue, they can click on it, push one or two buttons, and instantly there is a counselor that is live that can go face-to-face and talk with these people,” Aaron Brilbeck of the Oklahoma County Sheriff’s Office told FOX 25.
According to the report, most deputies already have mental crisis training, but it’s not always enough.
“A lot of our guys are CIT certified or crisis intervention training certified, so they’ve got some basic training and working with people who have mental health and substance abuse issues,” Brilbeck said. “Oftentimes that’s just not enough. The training is good but they’re not counselors.”
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The iPads were deployed two weeks ago and have already been used about a dozen times, FOX 25 reported.
“Realistically, it’s the future of policing,” Brilbeck said. “For too many years police officers and deputies have been thrust into a position where they have to be mental health counselors, and it’s important for them to have some knowledge of how to work with people who are in a mental health crisis, but this gives immediate access to a counselor who is much more qualified than our guys are.”