Gary Porter Officer James Knapinski of the Milwaukee Police Department talks to a man he recognized to make sure he is all right. Knapinski has been trained in crisis intervention to help people with mental illness.

Milwaukee is ramping up mental health training for all 1,867 police officers, in response to a push from the family of Dontre Hamilton, Mayor Tom Barrett announced Thursday.

Hamilton, 31, was shot and killed April 30 by a Milwaukee police officer at Red Arrow Park. Hamilton, who suffered from paranoid schizophrenia and active hallucinations, was sleeping in the park that afternoon when employees at the nearby Starbucks called police to complain.

Barrett's move will make Milwaukee a national leader in mental health training for its police force.

Houston was the first police department in the nation to devote an entire division to mental health, pairing officers with mental health workers. But even Houston does not have all of its officers trained to deal with those in psychiatric crisis.

Barrett's action to expand training will fulfill a pledge he and then-Police Chief Nanette Hegerty made in 2004 in response to a similar police shooting. A report from the Mental Health Task Force, which they served on, titled "A Critical Juncture" promised all officers would be trained in mental health to improve their crisis intervention skills.

At the time, all officers got just four hours of training. A Crisis Intervention Team program, considered the gold standard, requires 40 hours of training. That is what Milwaukee officers will now receive.

The Hamilton family met Monday with Barrett and pushed for better training. They and their lawyer appeared alongside Barrett at Thursday's news conference at City Hall, across the street from Red Arrow Park where Hamilton died.

"The Hamilton family thinks all officers should have this CIT training and I agree with them," Barrett said.

Nate Hamilton, brother of Dontre, said he and his mother and other brother were disappointed to learn from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's "Chronic Crisis" investigation that not all officers had been trained to know the signs of someone with mental illness and the most effective ways of dealing with them.

"We believe this is a great city," said Nate Hamilton. "Our main goal is respect."

Barrett commended the Hamilton family for wanting to have "something positive come from the loss of their son and brother." He said most people would not have the strength to push for reforms in the aftermath of such a tragedy.

"I don't know if I could do this," the mayor told a room full of reporters. "I don't know if any of you could."

The extra training is expected to cost $1.2 million — $500,000 of which will be covered by a grant from the Greater Milwaukee Foundation. Barrett said he would seek additional funding from other organizations to cover the rest of the cost.

The expanded and accelerated training schedule calls for all officers — not just recruits and volunteers as previously planned — to receive 40 hours of training on the signs and symptoms of mental illness. Training will begin in February in groups of 50 officers.

This is in addition to 16 hours of training in mental health that is scheduled to begin in January for all officers who are not yet trained in CIT. That training was announced in September.

No charging decision yet

The decision comes as the public awaits word on whether Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm will charge former police officer Christopher Manney in the death.

Chisholm's office received a report on Hamilton's death from the state Division of Criminal Investigation on Aug. 8 and had promised to review it promptly. Chisholm has said he is waiting for two outside use-of-force reports before making a decision.

Hamilton's death has been the subject of a series of protests in downtown Milwaukee, led by his family and supporters.

On the day Hamilton died, two Starbucks employees had called police to complain about him sleeping in the park. Two officers questioned Hamilton but found no cause to arrest him. The pair returned minutes later and still found no cause.

Manney, on foot patrol, was unaware the other officers had been there already.

Manney had not received the full 40 hours of training in mental health, though he was assigned to the downtown area, where police are more likely to encounter people with psychiatric problems.

Witnesses say Hamilton and Manney got into a scuffle and Hamilton grabbed Manney's baton. Manney then pulled out his service revolver and shot Hamilton 14 times. Half of the bullets traveled in a downward motion and one hit him in the back, the autopsy revealed.

In October, Milwaukee Police Chief Edward Flynn fired Manney not for using excessive force but because he failed to follow department rules in the moments leading up to the shooting.

Manney has appealed his termination to the city's Fire and Police Commission.

At a news conference the day after the shooting, Flynn highlighted Hamilton's history of mental illness and said the mental health system failed him.

Crisis Intervention Team training was begun in Memphis in 1988 after a number of police shootings of people with mental illness. Officers are taught how to identify a person struggling with mental illness. They learn effective methods to de-escalate a tense or dangerous situation and are taught about the side effects of medications. Many of the classes are taught by people who have mental illness.

Milwaukee began such training in 2005. As it stands, only about 20% of the force has received the training.

Police Inspector Cariannes Yerkes, who oversees the training, said all officers will benefit from the 40 hours of training.


"Everyone will be able to use what we are teaching at some time in their career," Yerkes said. "There is not a person on this force whose lives don't intersect in some way with a person with mental illness."

Barrett also said he is adding a psychologist to the police force to help identify officers under stress and help them cope. The department is adding a second police officer in January to be paired with a trained mental health professional from the county's Behavioral Health Division to provide services to people in psychiatric crisis in the community.

Ashley Luthern of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report.

Read the investigation

To read the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's "Chronic Crisis" investigation, go to jsonline.com/chroniccrisis.

twitter.com/megkissinger1 mkissinger@journalsentinel.com