OAK LAWN, Ill. (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- Southwest suburban Oak Lawn has become the first suburb to partner with the Cook County Sheriff’s Office on a new way for police to handle mental health crisis calls.
“This is revolutionary,” said Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart.
He said the Sheriff’s Co-Responder Virtual Assistance Program (C-VAP) has been underway for the past year and that his deputies have been able to diffuse more than 70 calls to 911 that turned out to involve someone in a mental health crisis.
C-VAP involves having a police officer offer to someone a chance to talk face-to-face via table with a mental health counselor who is available 24/7.
“When they go to the house, at any moment, they have the ability to hand the tablet to the individual who is in crisis, the individual’s family members who can talk to them, and the de-escalation occurs immediately,” the sheriff said.
Oak Lawn began using the Sheriff’s Co-Responder Virtual Assistance Program a few weeks ago. Chief Daniel Vittorio said officers were skeptical at first, but not now after using it about a dozen times.
“I was amazed at how quickly you can get a counselor on an iPad, on a Zoom session within a matter of seconds, not minutes, within seconds," Vittorio said.
Chief Vittorio said the program gives residents a chance to get the help they need when they’re having a mental health dilemma.
“A lot of times when police go on these calls, as highly trained as they are, they don’t have the capacity to deal with some of these mental health issues that are on the rise throughout the country," he said.
Sheriff Dart said the result is people get the help they need without going through the criminal justice system.
“Nobody in the law enforcement community or in the public believes the first people coming to mental health crises should be police. Everyone’s in agreement on that. The solutions, though, seem to be the thing that elude everyone. This is the solution," Dart said.
Sheriff Tom Dart said the program is the future of dealing with mental health calls.
“This is how we see de-escalation. This is how we see people who don’t need to be involved in the criminal justice system, but need mental health treatment get to hospitals," he said.
Cook County Sheriff’s Police Officer Carmelo Riello said he connects a counselor to someone in a mental health crisis once or twice a month.
“You can offer it in instances where they don’t want to go to the hospital. They just want a voice, someone different to speak to, someone that’s not a police officer and not a paramedic,” the officer said.