Nampa Police to set up crisis intervention team

NAMPA, Idaho – In one of Idaho’s largest cities, police want to restructure the way they help the growing number of people experiencing mental health crises.

“A huge portion of our community needs help,” said Nampa Deputy Police Chief Curt Shankel.

Over the past five years, he said, the number of calls involving mental illness has increased by nearly 600%. In most cases, these calls are not about police matters.

In order to relieve the burden on patrol officers, better de-escalate situations and build better relationships with people so that they get the help they need, an additional crisis intervention team must be set up, according to Shankel.

They are calling on the city to approve over $75,000 to hire a mental health coordinator during budget discussions this summer.

“They would team up with one of our patrol officers and together act as a resource, go out and work with our community and help those in our community who may be in crisis,” he said.

This would be the first crisis intervention team in Canyon County. Most law enforcement agencies in Ada County already have at least one, including the Meridian Police Department.

Police Chief Tracy Basterrechea said they created a team with two officers specially trained in crisis intervention in 2020. The following year, they hired a psychologist and the program has “really taken off and become extremely useful to the community.”

He said that since their inception, crisis intervention teams have handled more than 50% of the department’s mental health-related calls, giving many officers more freedom to “do the things patrol officers are supposed to do.”

“To protect your officers, to protect your citizens, to protect your city, I think it’s a must to have a team like this,” Basterrechea said.

The Idaho chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) helped bring crisis intervention teams to the Gem State over a decade ago, said board member Christina Cernansky. One of the main goals is to keep people with mental illness out of jail and get them treatment.

“Prison is not always the answer we want,” Shankel said. “It’s not always the best option for the individual. But unfortunately, sometimes, given the resources we have, it’s the only option we have.”

Crisis intervention team members must complete 40 hours of training covering topics ranging from what it feels like to have schizophrenia to how to handle a crisis if someone finds themselves on a bridge, Cernansky says.

“If we could intervene early and ensure that we provide adequate training to those conducting these interventions, that would be key to removing individuals from the system,” she said.

The crisis intervention team would not handle calls where someone is trying to harm themselves or is armed. But Shankel said the team would review calls from patrol officers to see if they need to follow up on anything.

He said it was hard to see so many people calling police for help.

“But at the end of the day, I’m glad they’re doing it,” he said, “and I’m glad those resources are there. Now I just want our agency to be able to respond and help these individuals and provide them with better service.”

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