TEXAS — Mounting numbers of incidents involving excessive use of force during arrests sparked new crisis intervention units at law enforcement agencies, both nationwide and here in Texas in the years since 2020. Spectrum News looked at whether those efforts improved their approach to handling mental health calls over the last six years.
For Lt. Jerome Ellis with the Fort Bend County Sheriff’s Office in Richmond, just southwest of Houston, responding to mental health calls is personal.
“My mother experiences mental illness. My daughter experiences mental illness,” said Ellis, who oversees the agency’s Crisis Intervention Team, which was launched in 2012. “The need was very evident, because of the community outcry. There were incidents nationally.”…