HAMPTON — Responding to more than two dozen suicide attempts already this year, four resulting in deaths, town Police Chief Alex Reno is hoping grant funding he has applied for will help. He believes it would allow the department to utilize its resources most effectively while dealing with the variety of societal issues officers face daily.
“We respond to calls related to mental health every day,” Reno said in a recent interview. He said Hampton police have received 25 calls about suicidal people since January, including three of the four deaths in a three-week span. In 2022, Hampton police responded to 9 suicide calls, with one death.
“That’s a significant increase,” he said.
Following the three suicides close together, Reno said, the department’s dispatch received two more calls this summer concerning individuals others feared would harm themselves. Thanks to their diligence, he said, officers were able to trace the people involved in time to save those lives.
Hampton Police Chief Alex Reno has applied for a federal grant to help in addressing the mental health crisis locally after seeing an uptick in suicide calls.
In one case, officers on patrol went looking throughout the beach district for a person reported to be in distress. When the car was spotted and pulled over, the officer involved discovered the individual was armed with a gun and a knife.
At the next incident, with scant information, the dispatcher was able to track down the specifics to find a reportedly vulnerable person. When an officer made contact, the person was found slumped over the steering wheel after swallowing potentially deadly medication. The officer and emergency responders were able to save this person, according to Reno.
Those are the most severe examples of mental health issues officers are called upon to address, Reno said. In addition, daily, people call the police for assistance when they are overwhelmed while facing loved ones or colleagues exhibiting problematic behaviors.
“People don’t know what to do with a family member experiencing a mental health crisis, so they call the police,” Reno said. “We do what we can with the limited resources we have, but it isn’t in our specific field.”
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In cases like those, Reno said, instead of being out on patrol, officers end up spending hours of their time trying to help with issues that are actually not crimes, and are outside their mission and sphere of knowledge.
“It’s not in our toolbox,” Reno said. “We can’t fix mental health issues.”
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The uptick in suicide calls is one of the reasons behind Reno’s application for a $200,000 federal grant, which he believes can help Hampton better address these and other issues.
Known as a COPS grant, it’s out of the U.S. Justice Department’s Community Oriented Policing Services program. Reno learned of it when Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-New Hampshire, sent information on it to the state’s police chiefs.
Police responded to 25 calls about suicidal individuals since January, four resulting in death.
If funded, the money would be used to add three staffers to the Hampton Police Department: Two part-timers, a mental health liaison and a victim/witness advocate, plus a full-time attorney to replace the police officer who currently handles the prosecution of those arrested on non-felony charges.
“What are our goals?” Reno said. “We want to deliver the right resources to the right people.”
The part-time mental health liaison would not respond with officers, Reno said. But this trained professional would be equipped to identify mental health issues when they arise, evaluate responses and perform appropriate follow-up.
“After the call, this person would make sure we’re doing the best follow-up, and coordinate the effort,” Reno said. “Perhaps directing the case to the state’s Mental Health Court.”
Victim/witness advocates have been used for years in New Hampshire and other states by law enforcement and court systems. They ensure victims of crime are not lost in the shuffle, and witnesses to crimes feel comfortable and protected when they testify.
“The victim/witness advocate would make sure we’re responding correctly to the victims of crime,” Reno said. “That we’re following the Victims’ Bill of Rights, and that they feel heard, are kept updated and are consulted. Sometimes crime victims don’t feel comfortable speaking with a police officer, but they will speak to civilian advocates.”
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Currently, one of Hampton’s police sergeants handles all the town’s non-felony prosecutions at the circuit court level at the Hampton Courthouse. Felony cases are handled by the Rockingham County Attorney at Superior Court.
Reno, a former Hampton police prosecutor, can attest it’s a full-time job that takes a police officer off the street. If approved, the grant would fund an attorney to handle Hampton PD’s prosecutions, putting an officer back on patrol, he said.
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In a time when finding and keeping full- and part-time police officers is a real challenge for all police departments, Reno said, appropriately utilizing the resources Hampton has is vital.
“I’d like to let lawyers do what lawyers do, and let police officers do what police officers are supposed to do,” Reno said. “Protect the public.”
If the grant is funded, he said, it would provide enough money to cover the costs of these three positions in a pilot program for one year and free up officers’ time to do what they’re hired to do while better dealing with the non-criminal societal situations police are called on to address.
After a year, he said, the success of the program can be weighed, and the town can decide how to proceed.
This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Suicides alarm chief: Hampton police seeks mental health staff funds
