But 2007 was a long time ago and the police are in need of more than just a simple refresher. The ComPol admitted today that officers haven't gotten the kind of training they need to deal with mentally ill patients during a particularly violent episode. He said that he would like for the Ministry of Health to have an in depth session with them – and even then, he believes it will still be difficult when they have to actually put that training to use.
Chester Williams - Commissioner of Police
"Our policy was put together jointly by ourselves and the Ministry of Health, I think there's a mental health section in the ministry and they are the ones that helped us with our policy because we wanted to make sure that the policy was in line with what they want it to be. But yes there certainly is a need for us to train our officers more in terms of how to approach situations like those and I can tell you that you may have all the training in the world to do something but when you find yourself in a certain position or certain stage, sometimes, you forget all that training because you have to act based on what you're confronted with so we are certainly going to work on the training but again that training will have to come from the MOH because they are they people that have the expertise not us, so whenever it is they are available and they can assist us then we certainly would be happy to have it."
Brandon Usher
"Has there been any training so far?"
Chester Williams
"We have had a few sessions but not to the magnitude that I would want to see. I certainly believe that there's a need to have more police officers trained."
