Texas - What is a Mental Health Check traffic stop???

[yorick]

According to reports, officers attempted to stop the man on a mental health check.

Saw this story on O'Reilly - I mean the guys obviously a nutjob - but this part caught my ear - apparently Texas police pull people over at random for a 'mental health check" ??

Is that even a real reason for pulling someone over? Or did the media somehow screw it up?

full story here:
http://cbs11tv.com/topstories/local_story_242143638.html

Aug 30, 2006 1:31 pm US/Central

Police Chase Ends In Roanoke
(CBS 11 News) An hour-long police chase that began in Grapevine ended in Roanoke when the driver slammed into a beer truck.

According to reports, officers attempted to stop the man on a mental health check.

The chase wound through five North Texas cities and as the chase went through Irving, the driver attempted to run over a police officer, authorities said.

The officer shot the suspect.

After several attempts, police successfully stopped the car with retractable spikes. The man lost control of the vehicle and slammed into the beer truck.

An officer broke the driver’s window and several other officers were needed to pull the man from the vehicle.

After a struggle, he was then taken into custody and then transported to John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth with a gunshot wound.

Neither the man’s name nor condition have been released.

 

[Bob R]

The way it is written makes it sound like they were out patrolling and saw this guy. "Hey, he looks crazy, and he has a Kerry sticker on his car, maybe we should pull him over and do a *mental health check* on him!"

Hopefully, at least I hope so, they were sent to check on this gentleman by his family or some concerned health care workers, and he decided to make a run for the border. My money is on this.

bob

 

[HankB]

Never heard of pulling people over for a "mental health check."

My guess is the reporter got things mixed up. (So what else is new?)

 

[AF_INT1N0]

well if he had a Kerry Sticker on his car no wonder!!

 

[Valkman]

That is scary, because if they do one on me I'm going away!

They could never have those here - they'd have to arrest thousands.

 

[Coronach]

Never heard of such a thing for a traffic stop. I suspect strongly that something got lost in the translation from popospeak to talkingheadblather.

Mike

 

[Atticus]

"He is driving like a crazy man...check him out"

 

[Frog48]

I've never heard of a "Mental Health Check" as reason for a traffic stop. Theres gotta be more to the story... at least I'd hope so.

 

[cassandrasdaddy]

i have

a relative who's very mentally ill(insert cheap shots here). He's stopped taking his meds and run off a few times. We called cops and have them find him. We had his doctor call to verify the situation. That way the cops know up front what they are dealing with and were more likely to treat him kindly. its hard to tell if the gut being combative is just a jerk or mentally ill. We were able to tell them he didn't have access to or a history with weapons.Bottom line is no one gets hurt. Cops seemed to appreciate the info and the family sure liked getting him back ok.

 

[strambo]

When the cops come across someone so kooky they are a danger to themselves and others, they can be put on a police officer hold (POH). They get taken to the hospital to be checked out and treated. That's how it is in Oregon.

It is only done to really drunk/drugged up people and real whackos...not harmless guys talking to themselves. This sounds like something similar. It's not something to be abused...it's obvious.

 

[FTF]

I saw that live on fox this afternoon. They said it was a mentally deranged person. I saw when he hit the beer truck, but I didn't know he was shot.

The cops surrounded him at the accident. One officer used his ASP to break the window and open the door from the inside. Then emerged one of the biggest black people I have ever seen... easily 300lbs and not a fatass, immediately swinging and throwin bows on all the cops out there, who coincidentally were wrestling with him with one arm and swinging their pistols around with the other. Which might explain why the feed was immediately halted... either because the news didn't want to see the man get killed on live tv, or some officer shoot someone else on accident, or shoot the helicopter lol.. it was nuts.

I checked foxnews.com all day long after I saw this late this afternoon and saw no mention of it... it was pretty dramatic, especially considering the size of the guy and the guns pointed everywhere.

 

[Walter]

The story I heard on the news tonight was that relatives of the man
had called police and told them he was having some type of mental
breakdown. The police ran a computer check on the guy and came
up with a history of mental and/or legal problems.

So the police went looking for the guy, and found him. From the
story and the videos of the chase, I might believe the guy was having
some kind of mental breakdown.

And he was one BIG guy. It took about 12 cops to wrestle him to the
ground to get him cuffed.

Walter

 

[Jeff White]

It's a fairly common call. Someone gets distraught, leaves in a car, the family calls the police, says the subject is distraught and suicidal or homicidal and we stop the car and get the person to a hosptial. The last one I handled the subject had driven into a ditch and flattened a tire and was talking to his estranged girlfriend on his cell phone after taking the contents of a bottle of pills (don't remember what they were) and was drinking beer. He told the ex girlfriend he'd taken pills and was drinking, and she called his father who called the police and a bolo was put out. Some agencies call it a welfare check rather then a mental health check.

Jeff

 

[LAK]

I think this guy was already considered a mental outpatient case and the action was initiated by a family member. He was shot by an officer who was trying to protect another officer when he thought the subject was going to run him over. Looking at the film, it didn't slow him down in or out of the car.

----------------------------------------------------

http://ussliberty.org
http://ssunitedstates.org

 

[Wiley]

Other than running into a beer truck (capital offense that) at the instigation of the authorities, what had he done to be hunted down and shot?

It's not a great leap to: "They're speaking out against the govenment. They must be insane. They need to be chased down and taken into custody for their own protection. Mobilize the troops!"

 

[JohnBT]

"Other than running into a beer truck (capital offense that) at the instigation of the authorities"

The cops urged him to do it?

All he had to do was stop. I guess they could have let him go on with his rampage, the public be damned.

John

 

[ceetee]

Other than running into a beer truck (capital offense that) at the instigation of the authorities, what had he done to be hunted down and shot?

The story I heard on the news tonight was that relatives of the man
had called police and told them he was having some type of mental
breakdown.

If the family calls in to say a guy is having mental health problems, and an officer witnesses behavior that seems to verify that call, then I have no problem with the cops taking a guy to a hospital for evaluation. What's the alternative? Wait until he hurts himself, or hurts an innocent bystander?

 

[Wiley]

Ceetee wrote: What's the alternative? Wait until he hurts himself, or hurts an innocent bystander?

So preemptive arrests are a 'good thing'? I disagree. It's no different than the gun-grabbers saying you shouldn't have a gun because you might do something illegal with it.

Your logic is if someone calls the police and says that an individual is acting funny, the police should start looking for him? It's not their job to protect the individual.

The important question is: Had the guy commited a crime at the time of the relitives call?

If no, then leave him alone. Not mobilize the troops and force him into commiting a crime just to be nice to the relitives (which appears to be the case). If yes, then the police action was right and proper.

Ceetee, I'm really not picking on you but this comes up time after time. If no crime has been committed then the police should stay out of it. If something happens to a bystander well, that one of the risks of living in a free society. And then the police can step in.

 

[Double Naught Spy]

Why was he shot? Because he tried to run down officers.

The notion of a mental health traffic stop is bogus miswording. Read story below.

http://www.dentonrc.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/083106dnmetchase.4df58ebd.html


Man leads police on 2-county chase

Car crashes into beer truck after spikes, shooting fail


09:02 PM CDT on Wednesday, August 30, 2006

By DEBRA DENNIS / The Dallas Morning News


Police threw spikes in front of Timothy Lee Warfield's car and even shot him.

But nothing stopped Mr. Warfield during a harrowing two-county police chase until he slammed into the side of a beer truck in Roanoke.

The 31-year-old Roanoke man was in stable condition at John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth, where he was taken by helicopter following the 90-minute high-speed pursuit.

Mr. Warfield is facing at least one charge: evading arrest.

Irving police could charge him with assault on a public servant because he tried to run down one of the officers pursuing him.

The chase began shortly before 9 a.m., when police were called to conduct a welfare check on Mr. Warfield's mental condition.

"We wanted to talk to him and he fled in his vehicle," said Sgt. Todd Dearing, a spokesman for Grapevine police.

Officers spotted the man in his maroon Pontiac Grand Prix on International Parkway, just north of Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, and tried to pull him over.

"One of Warfield's family members was concerned over his mental condition," Sgt. Dearing said. "He had been seen stopping in the middle of the freeway and getting out of his vehicle. The family member was requesting us to stop him, believing him to be a danger to himself."

Mr. Warfield ignored warnings to pull over and led police on a chase that snaked through Irving, Grand Prairie, Trophy Club, Dallas, Southlake, Westlake and Roanoke.

After he nearly ran down an Irving officer, a Grapevine officer fired at Mr. Warfield's car, shattering a back window and striking him in the left arm, police said.

.

He careened into a service station on State Highway 114 in Roanoke and crashed into a parked beer truck.

When Mr. Warfield emerged from the wrecked vehicle, he fought with officers, police said.

[image caption...The suspect resisted arrest when pulled from his vehicle, but was eventually subdued and given medical treatment. Despite the gunshot wound and at least one flattened front tire, Mr. Warfield kept driving]

"He was combative, resistant," Sgt. Dearing said. "When he got out, he still fought the officers. The officers used measured restraint through all of this."

Mr. Warfield was subdued and hospitalized for medical treatment and a mental evaluation, police said.

The officer who shot Mr. Warfield has been placed on administrative leave pending the results of an investigation, Sgt. Dearing said.

Both Grapevine and Irving police are investigating.


WFAA-TV contributed to this report.

 

[Frog48]

"We wanted to talk to him and he fled in his vehicle," said Sgt. Todd Dearing, a spokesman for Grapevine police.

Did they have an arrest warrant? Did they witness him committing a crime?

If not, he has every right to get in his car and leave. The police should have never pursued him to begin with. The evading charge is bogus; they're charging him is so that the police dont have to admit they screwed up.

 

[LightningJoe]

In Texas, there is the concept of "driving like a chump" and it is technically illegal, though rarely enforced. If you sit in on a lot of trials in Texas, you'll often hear an attorney interject things like, "Your Honor, I object. The witness is acting like a chump" and so forth. "Like a chump" has a precise legal definition in Texas and to do things in this fashion is a violation of law.

 

[GEM]

That's is why they don't let Rumsfeld and Cheney drive in Crawford, Texas.

I'm bad - cheap shot - I'm sorry - - not really

 

[carebear]

I'm as much for restricting police powers as the next guy but there isn't a "slippery slope" here. It's a cul de sac.

His family called the police to check on the guy's welfare because they knew he had issues and was behaving in a way dangerous to himself and others but didn't have the means to effectively find him themselves.

"One of Warfield's family members was concerned over his mental condition," Sgt. Dearing said. "He had been seen stopping in the middle of the freeway and getting out of his vehicle. The family member was requesting us to stop him, believing him to be a danger to himself."

The police apparently checked on his status and he in fact was a known mental case.

The police acted within the law to pull him over and check out the behavior reported by witnesses (the family).

He then took off. Valid stop or not, you have to interact with the police when they stop you. If they have nothing, THEN you can drive away. This guy apparently just rabbited, in the process committing traffic offenses that then justified a stop all on their own. (speeding, reckless driving, failure to yield)

Did he need shootin'? Maybe / maybe not, if he really aimed at the officer, but that's a different issue.

Do you get to resist when officers lawfully remove you from your vehicle after you cause an accident? NO.

This is not some sort of jackbooted overstepping, this was, especially at the beginning, the very definition of "protecting and serving" both the driving public at large and this individual and his concerned family. That it went wrong was psycho guy's fault. Remember, from what we know he was on his way to being road pizza prior to the stop attempt.

 

[Steve in PA]

Good post, too bad waaaay too many people won't be able to comprehend what you wrote.

 

[Art Eatman]

LightningJoe, where in the world did you ever hear "driving like a chump"?

And when did this term arise? I never heard it when I rode Buddy Patrol with the Austin cops, granted it was a good while back. It's sure a new one to me.

Art