(Juneau) Over the last two months since January 1st, the Dodge County Sheriff’s Office has responded to 18 suicidal incidents and has handled 14 emergency detentions. An emergency detention is a situation where an individual has demonstrated a substantial risk to themselves or others.
In his monthly column, Sheriff Dale Schmidt says that in his opinion, once these situations become stable, and it is determined that mental health intervention is needed, these cases should be turned over to mental health providers immediately for treatment.
Under current Wisconsin law, a law enforcement officer is responsible for transporting the individual to a hospital and guarding them there while in a mental crisis room until a mental health facility is identified. Schmidt says that typical transport takes up to one hour to the facility and an evaluation usually lasts four to eight hours but can sometimes take 16 hours or more.
The sheriff has been working with legislators and stakeholders the past several years to try and streamline this process with little to no success. Schmidt hopes that one day this process can be streamlined, and officers can go back to focusing on keeping Dodge County communities safe.
