Interfacing with the Mentally ill - Police Training Video 01

Booked for Safekeeping (Part I) (1960); Fascinating documentary made to train police officers in the assistance and management of mentally ill and confused persons, produced in New Orleans by eminent filmmaker George C. Stoney using real New Orleans police officers as actors. A little-known ethnographic classic that is strongly rooted in the place where it was made. The film is correct in advocating that mentaly ill people be held in the least restrictive environment possible, particularly NOT in a jail cell unless absolutly essential. Demonstrates the proper management of mentally ill persons by members of the large city police department to prepare the mentally ill persons for their subsequent medical treatment. Describes the different types of mentally disturbed people a police officer must deal with, such as the senile, the mentally retarded, and the attempted suicides. Stresses the need to talk with the family to get a person's background, using the case of a mental patient who feels his neighbors are planning to kill im. Shows a case in which a policeman handles a mentally disturbed person improperly. Points out the need for 24-hour medical help for police offices who deal with the mentally disturbed. This early 60s police training film, made in New Orleans, was designed to educate officers in how to handle people who are mentally ill, a type of situation that is more common in police work than you might think. The film is quite well-made and realistic, showing us scenes of police officers handling a confused, senile old lady making a scene at a grocery store; a depressed man who tried to kill himself by jumping off a bridge; a frightened, paranoid psychotic armed with a knife; and a catatonic who doesn'tspeak English who suddenly goes from a state of stupor to a violent attack. The main cop in the film keeps his cool in these very difficult and dangerous situations, trying to talk down the disturbed people, and when this fails, physically subdues them in the least painful and frightening ways possible. The film points out in a number of different scenes that there are often inadequate facilities and services to deal with such people, and that is why the job falls to the police. For example, the narrator repeats several times that jail is not a good place for such persons, yet in all cases shown, the disturbed person ends up being held in a bleak jail because there is no other safe place available to keep them until they can be seen by a doctor. The New Orleans setting of the film gives it a strange, otherworldly quality. All in all, this is a fascinating film about a difficult social problem. Producer: Stoney Associates. Creative Commons license: Public Domain.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• mental
• illness
• mentally
• ill
• police
• officers
• brutality
• training
• law
• enforcement
• emotionally
• disturbed
• persons
• patient
• US

[Harryreid51]

thanks for the video

[rosaryfilms]

@Harryreid51 - you are welcome!

[imnazhole]

Looking on line researching for an essay question in my police psychology course and thought i should check this out, and it is really good. Thanks for posting this.

[rosaryfilms]

imnazhole, you are welcome!

[dananjoeysmom]

I am a crisis intervention trainer, and served on a team as a mental health professional who would go out with deputies. This is great!! Anyway I could get a copy??? Thanks!

[rosaryfilms]

dananjoeysmom, I have sent you a private e-mail. Thanks!

[medmatic]

"Booked for Safe Keeping"? "Prevetion Detention" is a violation of the geneva convention. Please go to Yahoo and type in "Horrible Truth About Psychiatric Drugs" to see a research paper exposing these drugs. Also so the search "Documented Proof Psychiatric Drugs Shorten Lifespan". Be sure to include the quotes. These drugs destroy fertility and libido and cause impotence and extream disphoria and obesity. The promote suicide and violence not prevent it.

[Kateaclysmic]

Narrator: "... a person who has attempted suicide should be held until medical help can be found. Belts, shoelaces or clothes he might use in a new attempt to kill himself, are, of course, removed..."

Police officer: "Want a cigarette?"

[reevedavey]

@nintendaholic and mom said,"he should have friends".newsflash.people usually have friends when they,re likeable and popular and have some degree of social skills.you gotcha self a loony toonz hunee chile so quichor griping ya hear?

[reevedavey]

@pyromaniak1 was psychotic....?

[reevedavey]

@B7ACNEONder listen whack job who let you near a computer anyway?lol

[reevedavey]

YOU,RIGHT PAUL THEY DO WANNA HURT YOU AND DEY GOT DA POLEES TA DO DIDN EY PAUL?NEXT TIME PAUL OBEY DEM VOICES....

[mnpd007]

I can assure you that in the real world he'd been perforated with lead the moment he lunged with that knife. In fact, he ran a real risk of getting capped the first time he refused to drop it. Mentally ill or not, no one... not even cops... are required to experiment with their own lives.

[human0un]

paul is going to get strapped to a bed spring with his arms restrained and heis going to get shocked until he is in a complete state of mental retardation

this is the cure for his behavoir..he is now docile..doesnt even blink

[socialambiguity]

"the public seldom appreciates"...so that's an example of "us vs. them" being imbedded early on...not a new thing.

[TheBlackrebels]

putting people in a mental hospitals/group homes is no better then what the nazis put the jews and other deemed inferior people in concentration camps

[klard]

This is very out of date and not very realistic in the modern police world. Police interact with much more violence now and usually handle people with a good beating or taser.