There must be a better way! So says Tulsa Deputy Police Chief Jonathan Brooks.
He told a state senate interim committee that law enforcement should NOT be involved in transporting non-violent mental health patients to facilities.
The patients are handcuffed and placed in caged-cars for transport like a criminal when often they are not violent and simply seeking help on their own. Brooks says that causes unnecessary, additional mental trauma. He says it also removes officers from field duty.
He encouraged the committee to look at what other states are doing and get law enforcement out of mental health transport.