When “Code 9” is broadcast over Cincinnati police radio channels, a cadre of newly trained officers is ready to respond. Code 9 is the signal for the mentally ill — and since the 1997 shooting death of an escaped mental patient who threatened officers with a brick, the Cincinnati Police Department has grappled with how to handle these cases.

        Last year, Cincinnati officers had more than 5,000 encounters with people who were mentally ill.

        This week, 90 officers became part of a specialized mental health response team that some police and health officials say could become a model for departments across the nation.

        “I think we are on the track,” said Judy Harrison, manager for social work and psychiatry at University Hospital. “I think it could be the best in the country.”

        The new program is one of several U.S. Department of Justice mandates that the police department must put in place within 10 days from today.

        As part of an agreement with federal investigators, who launched a patterns and practice probe of the department following the April 2001 riots, police agreed to create a team available at all times to respond to incidents involving the mentally ill.

        Ms. Harrison, who helped in the 40-hour training sessions at the police academy, said it has had an immediate impact on the street and in the relationship between social workers and officers at the hospital.

        “(Before) it really depended on the officer,” she said. “Some officers had a real understanding of the mentally ill, some didn't.”

        Now patients and social workers are able to work with the same officers on a daily basis. And that can make a difference when patients need to be hospitalized against their wishes — and maybe even put in handcuffs.

        As part of the training, officers listened to mental health professionals, shadowed social workers and met with people who are mentally ill. The officers were given an overview of the mental-health system, legal issues and community resources.

        They were also taught techniques to defuse tense situations and tactics for using nonlethal force.

        Cincinnati Lt. Howard Rahtz, who oversees the police academy, said that on July 1 the officers became the first response on mentally ill calls.

        The department collaborated with the Mental Health Association of the Cincinnati area to create the response program, which is based on one in Memphis, Tenn.

        Lt. Rahtz said most officers in the program were volunteers. He said the department wanted enough officers to cover the three primary shifts in each of the five police districts with overlap to account for vacations and off days.

        While this training is new, Lt. Rahtz said the department for years has been working to improve ways officers deal with the mentally ill.

        “It's not like we have been standing still here,” he said.

        New recruits are required to undergo eight hours of mental health training when they join the police academy. And the department has already partnered with University Hospital to put a psychiatric social worker in District 5, which covers Clifton, Winton Hills and Northside among other city neighborhoods.

        On July 1, District 1 — which includes downtown, Over-the-Rhine and the West End — also was assigned a permanent social worker.

        “This is the first place that I am aware of where we are doing (all) of those things,” Lt. Rahtz said. “It is a unique thing in the country.”

West Chester a city? Idea cooks
Firecracker injury requires surgery
Tristaters mark Fourth with fervor
Giant American flag painted on front lawn
More holiday weekend events
Heat alert ending
Police equipped for mentally ill
Truck flips at Lytle Tunnel - again
BRONSON: Drug fiends escalate war on city
Local Digest
SMITH AMOS: We're killing ourselves for pizza, fries
Diana Greer, 66, forged career in business world
Empowerment takes new focus
Exhibit tracks man's mission
Glen Este newscasters honored
Good News: Program will mold leaders
School planning process under way
Congrats
For Woody Evans, jazz was life's blood
Future weapons developed
High court won't hear farm's appeal
Ky. radio station rallies for overweight coal trucks
Remark clears Columbus airport
Some school districts holding onto surplus
Three more priests on leave
Troopers out to stem rise in highway deaths
Two killed in Fostoria fire
Unprescribed drug causes man's death
Wallace's joins suit against accountants
Wethington resigns from dining club