State's mental health crisis a priority for Portland chief
12/24/09 | 11 comments

State's mental health crisis a priority for Portland chief


By Clarke Canfield, The Associated Press
AP
Portland Police Chief James Craig is interviewed Tuesday, Dec. 22, 2009 at his office in Portland, Maine. Craig has been Police Chief for 8 months after working in the Los Angeles Police Department for 28 years. (AP Photo/Joel Page)

PORTLAND, Maine — Police are dealing with increased gang activity, drug-fueled crime and rowdiness in the city’s Old Port, but it’s a mental health crisis that represents the biggest public safety challenge, the police chief said.

Officers in Maine’s largest city have received about 3,000 calls from people threatening suicide this year, and violence involving people with mental illness is a regular occurrence, Chief James Craig told The Associated Press in an interview.

Just last month, officers risked their lives to prevent a suicidal woman from jumping from the Casco Bay Bridge into Portland Harbor. Officers took her to the hospital, but were called back to the bridge less than 24 hours later when the same woman again was threatening to jump to her death.

It’s time to examine Maine laws so people can be forced to receive treatment for their illnesses before they hurt themselves or others, Craig said.

“This is a public safety issue. I’m not afraid to deal with it, and if it makes some people uncomfortable I’m OK with that,” Craig said. “It’s time for people to take responsibility.”

Craig, 53, became Portland’s 18th police chief in May after 28 years with the Los Angeles Police Department and 3½ years before that with Detroit police. He is the first black man to hold the job, overseeing a force of 158.

Eight months into the job, Craig said he is happy to see the city’s crime rate falling, and he believes a statistic-focused approach to crime fighting will help lower it further. He’s working to defuse tensions in the Sudanese community after a fatal police shooting, and to quell drunken rowdiness in the Old Port.

Internal adjustments — including changes in shift hours and a loosening of the department’s policies on wearing hats — have been embraced by the rank and file.

But it’s the large number of people with mental illness on city streets that most alarms Craig. People with mental health problems gravitate toward Portland because of the services that are available.

All too often, however, people with mental illness fail to get adequate treatment after police take them to a hospital or jail, he said. Police had contact with the woman who twice threatened to jump from the bridge nearly two dozen times this year, he said.

“The biggest crisis is and will continue to be dealing with the mental health crisis,” Craig said.

By law, people with mental illness can be held if they’re a danger to themselves or others or unable to care for themselves, said Carol Carothers, executive director of the Maine chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

But it’s true that many people with mental illness don’t receive the treatment they need and that the mental health system in Maine and nationally is in trouble, Carothers said.

With state budget cuts looming, it isn’t about to get any better.

“The chief needs to buckle his seat belt because they’re about to take about $100 million out of mental health spending in Maine, and that’s on top of the $48 million they took out of mental health spending last year,” she said.

Since his arrival from Los Angeles, the biggest surprise for Craig has been the amount of drunken rowdiness he has seen in the city’s bar-filled Old Port area late at night.

But he’s pleased with the city’s low crime rate. Violent crime is down 11 percent and overall crime is down about 2 percent this year through Dec. 20, he said.

The Police Department is making an effort to ease tensions with Portland’s Sudanese community after a fatal shooting of a 26-year-old Sudanese man last spring that sparked anger and unrest, Craig said. Maine’s attorney general has ruled that the officers fired in self-defense and that the shooting was legally justified.

A top priority in the coming year will be to address what he says is a growing gang problem in Portland. He knows gangs, having come from Los Angeles where he dealt with notorious gangs.

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Comments
11 comments on this item
On 12/23/09 at 10:38 PM, stewie wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

You think you got problems in Portland??? We got just plain old normal craziness in Atlanta - Naked home owner fight off intruders:)

http://www.wsbtv.com/news/22044050/detail.html

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On 12/23/09 at 10:42 PM, RogerNamVet wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

This is NOT the Maine of our father's day. I was not raised here, but I listened to the N work get bandied about a few years ago in my Bangor VET CENTER group, got upset, and quit. Now, I realize that, "I'M LIVING IN THE PAST!" Perhaps many older people still have racist feelings, and I guess they do get expressed at times, but this is NOT THE AMERICA OF 1960.

As a person who suffers from depression and PTSD from Nam, I AGREE WITH THE CHIEF. And, not just from a law enforcement standpoint, but also from a humanistic standpoint. Meaning, a country that focuses it's money and resources on killing people in small, tribal villages, ten thousand miles from home, instead of providing competent mental health services, and laws to back them up, GETS WHAT IT PAYS FOR.

We've got a great Army and Navy, that could vanquish any other nuclear power, but our own nation is rotting from the inside out. At least that's the way it seems to me, but others may have differing opinions.

HOPE THOSE WHO ARE FEELING SAD THIS HOLIDAY (like me) FIND THE POSITIVE SIDE OF LIFE. May the Gods (all the Greek and Roman, Jewish, Christian and Muslim ones) Bless Us All, and fill out spirits with positive thoughts!

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On 12/23/09 at 10:47 PM, stewie wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Atlanta headlines for today, This doesn't include the 4 murders that took place in the metro area overnight

-Baby Found With 22 Broken Bones; Parents Arrested

-Bus Carrying Disabled Overturns In Hit-And-run

-Naked Homeowner Fights Off Masked Gunmen

-Police Search For Armed Bank Robber

-Sheriff: Officer Supplied Drugs To Inmates.

-Man Firebombs Wrong House

-Atlanta Officer Involved In Shooting

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On 12/23/09 at 11:40 PM, Bangorian wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Think its bad now - give it a few months, after the proposed cuts to DHHS & Medicaid services kick in. Jails and homeless shelters will continue to bear the brunt of Augusta's short-sighted mentality.

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On 12/24/09 at 6:19 AM, ElectraGlide wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Hey stewie~~We are keeping right up with ya

For Portland is not Atlanta~~But in size comparisons again keeping up with Ya

Not something to be proud about~~Just seems like We do Not Learn from our History

One of the reasons I feel that happens is because We have less and less Real Leadership in this Country or On the State Level

The Selling of the Souls of Our Policticians just to get Elected and Get Richer is Distroying America

When you add All the Polorization this Causes in our American Citizens

You Get What We Got~~Todays America

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On 12/24/09 at 8:01 AM, Beelzebubba wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Portland and LA have one thing in common...both are full of liberal moonbats.

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On 12/24/09 at 10:12 AM, netzdamon wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Portland is to far south to really be in Maine in my eyes anyways.

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On 12/24/09 at 8:12 PM, hunterswears wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

The reality is that the State of Maine has cut more and more resources for the mentally ill and even those in crisis. Suicides are being coverd up. Domestic violence is increasing. Yet, there are no layoffs in the state of Maine even though they have less to do. A program called APS regulates access to mental health services, yet DHHS still has departments to approve access to services. Can we afford this redundency?

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On 12/25/09 at 12:57 AM, Farmer101 wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

What else is new? This has been going on in Maine for years ..Mental Health has been in trouble for a long time and still the state does nothing to help. Throw them all in Jail thats the states answer.

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On 12/26/09 at 4:31 PM, miamijohn17 wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

ASK HIM WHAT TYPE OF CIVIL RIGHTS IS BEING VIOLATE DUE TO UNKNOWN OF THE TRUTH TO COME OUT. FILED A GRIEVANCE AGAINST PENOBSCOT COUNT JAIL HOUSE A GRIEVANCE, THAT NEVER GOT TURN INTO THE TRAIN STATIONS @AGUSTA OF THE INCIDENT AS BANGOR JAIL HOUSE IS NO. 2 ON THE LIST OF SUICIDE INSIDE THE JAIL HOUSE.BANGOR IS SUICIDE METHODS JAIL HOUSE AS IF YOU ARE IN A ANIMAL SHELTER. WAS SOME OF THE JAIL HOUSE BUILT ON TOP OF WAR MATERIAL AS THE PEOPLE WILL WANT TO KNOW NOW. I DO HAVE THE ORIGINAL COPY OF THE GRIEVANCE AS ONCE IT IS TURN IN AN THE JAIL HOUSE NEVER TURN THEIR COPY IN AS TO WHO CIVIL RIGHTS IS VIOLATE ? ? ? ? ? ? ? DOES ANY JAIL HOUSE AND/OR PRISON HAVE ANY TRAINING OF THE MEDICAL FIELDS THAT IS BEING VIOLATE AS GLENN ROSS [TWO PLACE INSTEAD OF ONE} AND MASON WITH UNTRAIN KNOWLEDGE OF HIS INTENTION TO BE VIOLATE AS ? ? ? ! ? ? ? IS THIS GONNA BE IGNORE AS THE MEDICAL AND/OR MENTAL ILLNESS THAT D.O.C. TEACH YOU NOTHING BUT TO BE LAZY WITH 3 MEALS AND A BED TO SLEEP IN WITH MEDICAL AND/OR MENTAL ILLNESS IS EASY TO TALK A INNOCENT PERSON INTO TO DO BAD FOR THE JAIL HOUSE CARE LESS ACTION

.

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On 12/28/09 at 12:44 PM, bgrmeboy wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

...miamijohn????? What are you rambling about? I am sorry but if you just wanted to prove the point of needed funds you got it. Or if everyone else understands what was being said, you proved it again as I need help then- cause I couldn't understand any portion of your entry. I was trying to stick periods or commas here and there hoping to end or break phrases.... ????? you lost me. BUT once again... this state is going broke and can not afford to take care of every mental patient that comes across the borders. Take care of our own.. and ship the rest back (that's what the other states do). I hope everone has a Great New Year-- here is to making it a better one than this year.

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