Michael Richardson
The Columbus Police Department says rising overdose deaths and mental health issues in the community are among its priorities heading into the new year.
Columbus Police Chief Mike Richardson said local police are receiving more calls for suspected drug overdoses and mental health crises. He said he would not be surprised if officers are administering naloxone to people at least several times per week.
Naloxone is a nasal spray that can temporarily reverse an opioid overdose that is often sold under the brand name Narcan.
At the same time, local overdose deaths have risen to their highest level on record. As of Thursday, there had been 39 confirmed overdose deaths in Bartholomew County this year, county records show.
“When I got hired (at CPD 20 years ago), a couple of times a month, probably, we would take somebody to the hospital because they were having a mental health crisis,” Richardson said. “(Now) we’re doing it daily, if not every shift.”
Richardson said CPD plans have more officers undergo crisis intervention team training, or CIT, to help officers deal with someone who is experiencing a mental health crisis.
As of November, 24 CPD officers had completed the training since the inception of CPD’s Crisis Intervention Team in 2021, The Republic reported previously.
“Several of our officers who have been through that training have used it when they’re dealing with somebody who is in a mental health crisis,” Richardson said. “Already, we’ve been successful with that. That is something that we’ll have to continue to focus on and deal with. Our mental health calls have really increased over the past couple of years, and I don’t see that reducing for us, unfortunately.”
Earlier this week, the Columbus Board of Public Works approved a contract for the police department to hire John Bundick as a full-time chaplain.
The chaplain will help with the mental health of CPD officers, “so that when they go out there and help the members of our community that they are in the right spot as well and that they are able to do that,” Richardson said.
“He does some counseling for some of the officers that communicates with them,” Richardson said. “He also helps with the CIT training and stuff throughout the community that we’re doing. … There are things that we’ve been doing as well to try and help the officers stay healthy so that when they go out in the community, they can serve our community well.”
Richardson said Centerstone is planning to open a facility where CPD can take people experiencing a mental health crisis for help or to give them information.
“They may not be at the point where we feel like we can take them to the hospital, and they may not want to go to the hospital, and the family members may just be needing some guidance and trying to get some help for the loved one, and this will give us the opportunity to get them in touch with Centerstone to be able to get that help hopefully that they need,” Richardson said. “…I think next year Centerstone will have that facility up and running for us.”
Besides mental health and drug overdoses, CPD also plans to continue to focus on reducing property crime, arresting people who are bringing drugs into the community and building community trust, Richardson said.
“Every year is a busy year for us, but fortunately, we’ve got we’ve got some good men and women out there that come in and do their job every day and work hard, and we are very fortunate to work in a community that supports us,” Richardson said.
