Criminal justice leaders in Broward are once again sounding the alarm to find new ways to help people who are mentally ill, saying locking people up isn’t working.
A man who climbed on top of the Miramar fire truck on Tuesday is a very public example of the problem. Police say the man, who is known to them, is dealing with mental health issues. He was arrested after stopping traffic for more than an hour. Thankfully, it ended peacefully.
“It wasn’t just a matter of his own safety, there a lot of things could have gone catastrophically wrong and someone could have died. A firefighter, a law informant officer, or the individual himself,” said Broward Sheriff Gregory Tony.
Tony has been pushing for change when it comes to police interactions with mental illness.
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“Officers are getting tired of dealing with all these mental health issues,” he said.
Last October, he started a new program where mental health workers accompany law enforcement on calls involving a mental crisis. From September of 2022 until the start of September of 2023, of the 545 clients the co-responders interacted with, 537 accepted services through BSO’s community partners and there were zero use-of-force incidents
“I don’t want our county to look like LA where the quality of life for everybody is diminished,” said Broward County Chief Judge Jack Tuter.
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Tuter lives in downtown Fort Lauderdale and sees the homeless problem; the majority are dealing with mental illness. But instead of getting treatment, he says they get locked up, medicated and released, only to come back again.
And those jail stays don’t come cheap. Right now, out of the roughly 3,500 people in the Broward County Jail, about 42% are receiving some form of mental health treatment, according to Tuter. Each stay costs taxpayers hundreds of dollars a day and that doesn’t include medication costs.
Both the Judge and Sheriff agree that money needs to be put towards mental health treatment centers instead.
“We have to find a better way to deal with this,” Tuter said.
They also add that there needs to be support from city and county commissioners who control the budget, along with a push from the public to make mental health services a priority.
