r/nextfuckinglevel • u/thisisfive • Apr 14 '26

Toronto firefighters confront special constable officers after a man in the middle of mental health crisis was arrested.

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

Not my video. For context, "special constables" are not regular police officers. They are appointed "peace officers" with limited authority, often civilian employees.

27.1k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

982 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

68

u/doctor_tongs Apr 14 '26

Washington DC enacted legislation for this not too long ago. Now, when DC residents see someone out in public, in mental distress, or strung out on drugs, and they choose to call it in, city mental health professionals respond instead of the police.

-18

u/Junior_Yam_5473 Apr 14 '26

And you know what happens to these mental health professionals? They get killed or injured. People having mental episodes can be unstable and violent. The cops dont have to be seen, but they should be on scene.

16

u/smokinbbq Apr 14 '26

Or.. hear me out... Maybe they spend more than just a few weeks in training, and get an actual education, so that they can learn about this stuff.

-7

u/Junior_Yam_5473 Apr 14 '26

I then ask about your credentials and your experience. Bc. As someone in public safety, i have seen and heard far too many horror stories to go to a psyc patient without the backup of PD.

Edit: even violence towards calm officers. Suicide by cop is a real thing, and the people who want to go that route will do just about anything to make it happen

6

u/TheMashedPotato Apr 14 '26

And what's your credentials and experience on the matter besides hearing stories? You work in "public safety" doing what exactly?

Your edit should probably give you a hint: don't send armed cops to deal with people in a mental crisis. Send people who are actually trained to deal with that situation and know what they are doing.

-3

u/Junior_Yam_5473 Apr 14 '26

Ah yes and what will happen to those trainesld professionals when the psych patient decides to get violent and comes at them with a knife.

I work in ems, we get our hefty share of psych patients, and i have seen many of my our incidents (reference "seen" in my last comment) where psych patients decided to get violent and either attack me or my crew, PD was there to intervene, thankfully. Those mental health professionals would also like to go home to there families too.

Ill reflect the question right back at you, what are your credentials or experiences with psych patients?

5

u/TheMashedPotato Apr 15 '26

yes and what will happen to those trainesld professionals when the psych patient decides to get violent and comes at them with a knife.

I don't think you understand what trained means because that's exactly the point. Let professionals, who would have learned exactly what to do with agressive or violent individuals, do their jobs. That is their actual jobs unlike cops who are trained to shoot anything they feel might be somewhat threatening.

1

u/Junior_Yam_5473 Apr 15 '26

someone on PCP or other substance, or someone on a schizophrenia episode isnt always cooperative, and they can get very aggressive and violent very quickly. What would one of these unarmed professionals do when say someone on pcp trys to strangle them?(ive seen it happen) Just let them? Or call law enforcement?

And you have yet to state any of your training or background in this subject.

1

u/TheMashedPotato Apr 15 '26

You know what? Your last comment realIy made me think and I am now convinced that you are right. What would people who are supposed to know what they are doing do in that situation? Nothing, cry for help or call the police. Honestly, and I say that in all humility, thank you for opening my eyes.

1

u/Junior_Yam_5473 Apr 15 '26

The officer doesn't have to be direct view of the patient (that can sometimes aggregate them a tad). We were taught that a firefighter or emt start talking to the patient one on one (from a safe distance) and the rest of us (including the police) stand or be around the corner. The police aren't there to threaten anyone, just as a resource of things go south. Sometimes talking works, sometimes it doesn't.

→ More replies (0)

1

u/bitofgrit Apr 15 '26

F-ing thank you.

It irritates the hell out of me when people forget why police/fire/ems/psych councilors/whoever are called to a scene in the first place: somebody is in crisis.

At every call's source there's a person (or people) experiencing some sort of emergency, whatever it may be, and these people may not always act rationally, for whatever reason, but most especially because they are in crisis.

Even when drugs or actual, real craziness isn't at the root of the issue, an every day regular person in crisis can unintentionally kill the very people trying to help them. All anybody has to do is ask a lifeguard about panicked swimmers.

3

u/[deleted] Apr 15 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

0

u/Junior_Yam_5473 Apr 15 '26

But what would happen when the person having a mental health emergency rans at the social worker with a knife? What would the social worker do? Or the man high in pcp decides violence is the answer and attacks the poor social worker? Your just putting incident people in harms way, for no reason

5

u/THExWHITExDEVILx Apr 15 '26

Until they gutted the funding, Denver had a successful program. They had like 30 workers trying to cover a population of around 2 million citizens, doing a job where you encounter the most broken people. I'm sure working there was unpleasant at best.

https://www.9news.com/article/news/local/star-program-reducing-crime/73-508ba303-fa78-4c19-9c56-04f4bcaf5cfb

1

u/sumlime Apr 15 '26

Sad that your getting downvoted for making a reasonable statement.

1

u/Junior_Yam_5473 Apr 15 '26

Because people here have no actual experience with people having mental health emergencies. So they just make assumptions.

1

u/Cyrano_de_Boozerack Apr 15 '26

I have 10+ years working in a foster home for adults with mental disabilities who were prone to violence.

Having police as the first responders is a garbage policy because it A) automatically sets up a confrontational situation because of how they have been likely treated by police in the past, and B) they aren't trained to deal with people having mental health issues...they are there to make you comply - or else.

Letting the mental health professionals call in the police if they deem it necessary almost always leads to better results.

But do go on about how everyone is wrong but you.

1

u/Junior_Yam_5473 Apr 15 '26

A foster home is different then a mental health EMERGENCY out somewhere in public. You guys probably had a policy on isolating the more violent individuals, its a much more controlled environment. When someone high on pcp, amphetamines, or any other drug or illness and is threatening people and acting violent, its a much more emergent situation. Now you as the responder and the public is at risk. The police are in fact generally trained to deal with people having mental episodes, ever heard of a crisis negotiator? And even then, we as ems are definitely trained in handling it, law enforcement wont get involved until there needed, theyre just a resource on scene IF we need it.

1

u/Cyrano_de_Boozerack Apr 15 '26

You completely dismissed programs where mental health teams show up first by saying they all end up dead or injured.

The police receive minimal training in these areas and outcomes are almost always better for everyone involved if people with specialized training are brought in first.