“Police are trained to ‘be big’ when they come in a room,” she said. “But if you’re dealing with someone psychotic, that’s throwing gas on the fire.”

Abderholden said police departments that use CIT training do not require officers to attend. “They want people who want to do it and who are looking for different ways to deal with things.”

Huettl said no Mankato officers have received CIT training yet. “It’s a relatively new concept. I know it is highly rated.

“It’s one of many things you look at. There are other methods out there, too.”

Hentges said the CIT training and other programs to intervene on behalf of people at risk are beneficial.

“A more organized effort than we have in the community would be great. The more resources we have the better.”

Hentges said that as a regional center with a large health care and social services network, Mankato does have a larger population of people with mental illness.

But Hentges and Huettl said full teams of crisis intervention officers is not practical in smaller cities.

“It becomes problematic, because of the on-call nature, you don’t have immediate access to CIT officers in a smaller community,” Hentges said.

Hentges said the local Human Services Department and other mental health professionals already work closely with police.

“We do bring people’s case worker or psychologist in in many cases to help with a person (police have contact with).”

He said police are most often the ones who show up when someone is in a crisis and officers first look for a way to keep things calm and get the help someone needs.

“Sometimes the officer can back out of the situation when someone is in crisis.”

But not always, he said.

“In the recent incident, you had a very violent, dangerous situation unfold here in seven minutes. That’s why we attempt to use non-lethal methods.”