Perry PD completes One Mind Campaign

PERRY — The Perry Police Department recently completed the One Mind Campaign and was recognized by the International Association of Chiefs of Police for its achievement.

According to the IACP, the One Mind Campaign seeks to ensure successful interactions between law enforcement and individuals with mental health conditions. 

The IACP states that police departments who are on the path to start this campaign must establish a partnership with a mental health organization, develop and implement a policy for law enforcement response to people with mental health conditions, and train and certify 100 percent of officers in mental health by providing Crisis Response Training to a minimum of 20 percent of officers and also Mental Health First Aid training to the remainder 80 percent. 

“Prior to my time as chief, Chief Lynn had learned of this program and thought it would be a great program. We were already doing mental health first aid and crisis intervention training,” said Police Chief Alan Everidge. 

Everidge mentioned there is a lot of training that goes into completing the One Mind Campaign. 

“For us, we have one officer that has not completed the CIT, but is on the waitlist for the next class. Everybody except one or two have mental health first aid. We are actually going above and beyond what the One Mind Campaign requires,” Everidge said. 

The Perry Police Department has been affiliated with Middle Flint Behavioral Health as the partner needed to complete the One Mind Campaign. The department has worked with them in the past, but after completing this campaign, it is more familiar with them. 

Perry Police Department has its own crisis response team consisting of ten officers.

“The goal behind this is that one of those ten should be working every day. If we have one of those kinds of calls, Middle Flint can have a mental health professional respond to the scene and that may help us deescalate the situation or help us get them a commitment paper that person needs, to get them to a crisis unit,” Everidge said.

The number of calls about mental health incidents and the lack of training to deal with these cases are a few of the main reasons that inspired the Perry Police Department to start and finish this One Mind Campaign. 

“We want to make sure that when people call the police here in Perry that they’re confident and think that we’re capable. Our goal is to help fix the problem or get the people the help they need or solve the crime. We believe in the ‘one mind’ and showing our commitment to training our officers to be better prepared to deal with mental health crises,” Everidge said. 

Everidge does suggest other police departments try to start and finish the One Mind Campaign, but it can be a lot of work. 

“It is difficult to get the classes. Crisis Intervention is 40 hours and we still have to answer other calls for service everyday. I think agencies today are more proactive than ever in trying to learn how to deal with and better prepare their officers to deal with mental health and mental health crises,” Everidge said.

Everidge is very appreciative of the officers who answer these calls every day. He is also thankful for support from the Mayor, city council, and city manager’s office to get officers much-needed resources.

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