The other night, I was listening to the police scanner, when there
was a call for an officer to check on a girl because she had told
her mother on the phone that she had cut her wrists. The
mother lives in a different city, so she could not go check on her
herself. So, an Antigo policeman was disbatched to the
address. After a little time had passed, the policeman came
back on the radio to say something along the lines of, “She
only said it to get back at her mom”, and “she has no
intention of harming herself, she has family with her, a cousin.”
and the policeman left.
It has always been my understanding that this type of thing is
NOT a judgment call for the police to make. Every time I have
ever heard of the police catching wind that someone MAY be
suicidal, it meant a mandatory stay at the Wausau Health
Care Center for an evaluation. I would assume because the
people at the Health Care Center CAN make the call on
whether or not someone is truly suicidal. I would also assume
that the reason the police don’t make those kind of judgment
calls is because if someone did harm themselves AFTER the
police had been there, the police dept. may get sued.
I didn’t hear anymore, so I am assuming that the call that was
made was correct. Even so, that doesn’t mean that something
can’t happen in the future to the girl and maybe a stay at the
Health Care Center could have helped her. If that were a
family member of mine, or someone I knew, I would most
certainly make a complaint against the Antigo Police.
..
“she had told her mother on the phone that she had cut her wrists.”
When the officer went there I am sure they were able to determine if the girl had slit her wrists. If she had not slit her wrists then it would be believable that she only did it to get back at her mom. The criteria for taking someone to the health care center is fairly stringent. Just because someone says they are going to slit their wrists it does not make them suicidal…ever hear of cutters? The way the law is set up it makes the police make a psychological evaluation of someone when they are not trained to make such decisions. The County can not afford, or won’t, to staff someone with the proper training 24 hours a day to make those calls. I don’t think the problem here lies with the police, it is with the system. The police can get sued (as anybody can get sued for anything), but they are exempt from liability in these cases so long as they act in good faith.
There are alot of people that say stupid things when they get angry……..chances are she asked her mom for something and her mom said no and it ticked her off and she used that as a payback…….cruel as it is it does happen…….teenagers especially when parents say no to something they get mad and yell then I am going to kill myself….that does not mean they will kill themselves that is just what they said to try to get mom and dad to change their minds and say yes to whatever the request was……heck my kids tell me that they r not going to be my kids anymore when I say no to something they want…….and they r only 7 and 4……..kids do and say whatever they think will get them what they want…..plain and simple……..I agreewith the police officer on his decision…..her wrists were not cut and she was physically fine when he spoke with her……..think back to when u were a kid…..what was your response when your parents said no……..
i agree….the apd made a good call,however usually if someone is saying stupid $hit like that it doesn’t always turn out good..what happens if she does really do when ppl leave,maybe she is depressed or something or a cutter like the other person said…..it only takes on slip of the hand and she is done…trust me I know…my stepdaughter was a cutter and slipped.and usually if you are a cutter it is because you can’t deal with stuff so u cut urself too feel a different kind of pain.I say Kudos too the APD for making such a difficult call.