Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed legislation July 11 that authorizes Michigan Department of Natural Resources conservation officers to actively help individuals they encounter who are experiencing a mental health crisis.

“When it comes to responding to a mental health emergency, every second counts,” said Conservation Officer Jeremy Sergey, who patrols Marquette County. “When someone is considering harming themselves and we have to wait for another agency to arrive, that could be the difference in them becoming seriously injured or injuring someone else.”

Senate Bill 59, sponsored by state Sen. John Cherry, revised the mental health code to include conservation officers.

As peace officers, conservation officers are fully licensed law enforcement officers through the Michigan Commission on Law Enforcement Standards and are the oldest statewide law enforcement agency in Michigan.

Despite having the same core training as other statewide law enforcement agencies, prior to July 11, conservation officers were not legally authorized to help someone experiencing a mental health crisis.

This meant they had to stand back and hope the person could self-de-escalate or had to contact another law enforcement agency and hope help would arrive in time.

“I lost a beloved cousin in an (out-of-state) park to suicide,” said state Rep. Jennifer Conlin, during a May health policy committee meeting. “The conservation officer watched him sitting there for 30-40 minutes, knew he was in major distress. He approached him a couple of times, couldn’t get him to talk about it.

“He couldn’t call anyone because he wasn’t making a disturbance. Unfortunately, he witnessed my cousin pull out a firearm and take his own life. He’s traumatized by that and felt like he could’ve done something.”

With the new legislation, conservation officers can now immediately help individuals experiencing a mental health crisis by taking them into protective custody so they can be evaluated by an expert, regardless of where they are working.

“We care about the people we serve and protect, and when our officers encountered these situations, without this authority, it placed their safety and safety of others at risk,” said Dave Shaw, chief of the DNR Law Enforcement Division.

Mental illness does not discriminate

Shaw said critical incidents are occurring weekly statewide without being limited to cities, rural areas or any one specific region.

Conservation officers are in a position to help as they patrol in all 83 counties of the state and conduct daily rural and urban patrols.

“It’s not just state parks we respond to,” Sergey said. “Often, we are the only officer on duty in rural areas at times. This bill being reclassified means we can now respond when we may be the only ones working.”

Sgt. Damon Owens is a DNR law enforcement supervisor based in Wayne County who also supervises Belle Isle Park, an island offshore of Detroit in the Detroit River.

“Working Belle Isle has opened my eyes,” Owens said. “I have witnessed or investigated several instances of unfortunate life experiences. It’s a beautiful place of peace where, unfortunately, sometimes people go to jump off a bridge or overdose on drugs. It’s become more common and happens on any given beautiful day – the more beautiful the day, the more it seems we see. It could be a veteran, homeless individual or anyone experiencing a mental health emergency.

“We used to have to rely on our ‘verbal judo’ to convince individuals in crisis to come down and self-volunteer to go to a hospital or call another agency to place the individual in protective custody. When this happens, a person often becomes more irate, and it’s harder for them to volunteer or we find out later down the road something happened that we could have prevented.

“I’m confident that we will now save more lives.”

Nature of the job

“When we look at a conservation officer in today’s world, things have changed dramatically,” said state Rep. Curtis VanderWall, during a health policy committee meeting in May. “Especially over past 10 years with a shortage of everyday state troopers, sheriffs and city police, conservation officers get called in a lot of cases they historically wouldn’t be brought into.”

Conservation officers base their day around fish, game, boating, snowmobiling and off-road vehicle patrols, averaging contact with more than 400,000 people each year.

The nature of the job means that they are usually contacting people who have a firearm, knife or other type of tool common for hunting and fishing.

“Every time a DNR officer goes to a call there’s a gun,” said state Rep. Mike Mueller. “When they go into the woods, there may be people experiencing a mental health crisis, carrying firearms. They are in pretty dangerous situations, and they need to have the tools to mitigate those situations.”

Support and training

It’s important that law enforcement officers receive training to safely handle these mental health crisis situations in the moment and have follow-up resources to ensure they are caring for their own well-being.

Conservation officers carry a “care card,” which includes the names and contact information for several resources they can immediately contact if they want to talk with someone.

“Mental health is very important to law enforcement, and we are very proactive in our training,” Shaw said. “It’s a current and developing topic to the point where a lot of calls we go to have a mental health component and we will continue to increase this focus in our training.”

Virtual reality

“This is unique because it immerses the officer in a realistic environment that cannot be replicated using traditional law enforcement training scenarios,” said acting Lt. Mark Papineau, who oversees the DNR’s conservation officer training programs.

Officers wear a virtual reality headpiece, which takes them through several different mental health scenarios, including bipolar disorder, autism and suicide. Each scenario starts with the officer experiencing the perspective of the person having a mental health crisis.

“Virtual reality teaches officers to use critical thinking and de-escalation skills, coupled with empathy, to help someone experiencing a mental health crisis,” Papineau said. “After experiencing that perspective, officers tend to have greater success de-escalating individuals.”

Next, the officer goes through the scenario again, but this time as the responding officer, and must make decisions about how to work with the individual.

Based on the officer’s decisions, the incident can either escalate or de-escalate. If a choice escalates the incident, the officer is presented with an expanding scenario that tests their critical thinking skills while they work toward a positive de-escalation and successful outcome.

“Each scenario is a win-win; there is no ‘bad’ ending,” Papineau said. “Throughout each scenario, there is an added level of critical thinking skills. Some decisions are timed, which places the officer under added stress to make a quick decision, replicating real-life experiences.”

With virtual reality, officers have the chance to learn new skills and techniques that, when presented in a real-life incident, can save lives.

Favorable outcomes

In a world where societal, financial and other pressures may be constantly or increasingly present, America is moving gradually toward removing the stigma surrounding mental health issues.

The resulting availability of more help to meet the challenges of mental health crises offers the hope of more favorable outcomes being realized.

Giving DNR conservation officers the ability to respond directly to mental health incidents, without delay, is a great example of more assistance being made available to those struggling in crisis circumstances.

This new authority will allow conservation officers to step in to try to de-escalate potentially dangerous or deadly situations, when every second counts.

That type of response capability will no doubt increase the likelihood of more lives being saved and more people being helped across Michigan.

Find out more about mental health services.