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Kurt Carlson, president of the Otis R. Bowen Center, presented the Warsaw Police Department's Crisis Intervention Team in front of the Warsaw City Council Monday.
The new law enforcement training focuses on the treatment of mentally ill individuals officers might interact with in the line of duty. The CIT educates patrolmen on mental health disorders and ways to handle situations using de-escalation techniques.
"This is in no way implies criticism to our current law enforcement. This is an opportunity to handle and avoid unfortunate situations we might experience in the future," Carlson said.
CIT hopes to reduce the number of mentally ill patients unnecessarily placed in jail and encourages treatment of these individuals with respect and dignity. Warsaw Police Department anticipates a decline in injuries suffered by policemen and civilians under the new training.
Local officers already educated under CIT include five WPD officers, three Sherrif's Department officers, four county jailers and six officers in Wabash and Huntington. EMTs are expected to be trained in the near future.
An ordinance requiring an appropriation of additional funds for the city's street budget was approved, allowing $157,000 to cover engineering costs incurred for road design on Argonne Road and the Parker Street corridor
The street department's request for a transfer of $2,000 between budget classifications was approved unanimously. The discussed funds will transfer from the department's operating systems into an unemployment classification.
New fines for parking violations were adopted Monday, enforcing increased penalties for first occurrences as well as subsequent infringements. Junk vehicles also will be penalized if found in business lots.
Cargo vehicles now will be restricted to truck routes, excluding the events of delivery, pick up and garagement. An ordinance to reduce traffic along Main Street passed, hoping to free up congestion along the street and decrease accidents in the area.
The council reviewed a correction of tax abatement for Little Crow Milling Company. In 1997, the company was granted a five-year tax abatement on personal property, but the state made an error granting an abatement of 10 years. In order to correct the mistake, the council recommended amending the abatement to reflect the 10-year span. In Little Crow's 1997 projection, they calculated adding two jobs to their work staff. Since the estimate, the company created 15 additional jobs on top of their projections.
Two ordinances scheduled for discussion were tabled for later action. The council delayed a deliberation on a request to adopt a new fiscal plan for an annexed area, stating the need for certain legal questions to be resolved before any decision could be made. The request for a vacating a public way was scheduled, but will await the recommendation of the plan commission before further action is taken.
The city council meeting scheduled for July 4 will be canceled due to the national holiday. The council will forgo a July 5 meeting and hold one meeting for the month July 18.
Present at Monday's meeting were Mayor Ernie Wiggins, Joe Thallemer, Bob Morrison, Jeff Grose, Charlie Smith, George Clemens, Jerry Patterson and Bill Rhoades.
