Pascagoula police officers completing mental health crisis training

Pascagoula police are training their officers to handle not only crime, but mental health situations they may come across to better serve their community.

The training, offered through Pine Belt Mental Health, is being completed by all officers so that they can identify and handle situations with citizens who may be going through a mental health crisis.

Officials say that the majority of calls they receive end up having some form of mental health crisis involved.

The department feels it will best serve the community by being able to properly handle these events.

Officer Richard Landry tells News 25 the training is useful for police, but it’s also a good tool for any first responder. “It’s very beneficial to our training and our department and I believe that everybody should go through the training even if they are not in law enforcement. Any type of first responders, any person that is dealing with people that are in a hospital… nurses. It’s a great training and I believe that everybody can benefit from it and we can help the problem.”

All officers that have completed the training have a pin above their nameplate.