Quote:
Originally Posted by Itse
There are arguments to be made about police being asked to handle stuff they're not good at and underfunded mental health services, and it's good to talk about that, but I don't think that's the issue here.
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That's exactly the issue here. Mental Health Services have seen their budgets crippled over the past three decades and as a result the police has to handle calls for service that traditionally went to a different agency. If this woman had the option she could have called appropriate Mental Health Services that had trained people who would recognize someone on the spectrum and be equipped to handle the problem. Instead she was forced to call 911 and had police dispatched who had not idea what to do, did not recognize the situation, and had no training in how to handle the child in question. This never would have happened if the appropriate agency was funded properly.