The family of Michael Conlon, the 28-year-old who was fatally shot by police officers in Newton Highlands in January, wrote in a letter to the Boston Globe that crisis training should be mandatory for police officers.
“We recognize that Newton is developing a multidisciplinary team to respond to crisis situations encountering the mentally ill, and we acknowledge Newton’s commitment to give its officers access to training to that effect. However, given that 1 in 5 US adults experiences mental illness, 1 in 20 US adults experiences severe mental illness, and 17 percent of youth experience a mental health disorder, we feel training is not only called for, but also necessary. We are left wondering whether, had this training been mandatory for all officers on Jan. 5, Michael might still be with us.”
I think that this post deserves more attention, even if it happens to land on our election day’s eve.
We’re all busy, details aren’t always easy to learn/critique, and we want to accept what the City/Mayor has told us about what happened. It’s easiest to leave it at that.
I’m not a witness, but I’m a friend and customer of a Newton Highlands business owner who knew of Michael Conlon and saw much of what happened that day. It was upsetting to my friend. He told me how Mr. Conlon was known to him and others as a customer but also recognized as someone with challenges, and that people understood this.
My friend’s belief is that this loss should not have happened. We all can accept that our police have a difficult job, but that it seemed to him that there ought to have been a different outcome, and that more patience, expertise and wisdom in dealing with the situation may well have saved a life.
I remember reading the Mayor’s statement that day and in the absence of any outside reporting just accepting. But after hearing what my friend said to me I now wonder if we heard the version that the City wanted us to hear vs one that was a lot more self critical. I’m really sympathetic to what this family has written. It’s easy to dismiss all of this until the issues touched on affect us more directly, and while our pandemic continues everyone of us may be much closer to people dealing with mental illness and related challenges than we realize. I genuinely hope that the City’s commitment to learning and growth is genuine, and not allowed to blow over as time and memory passes. Something like this will happen again and I think our police need to do better. It’s not an unreasonable expectation.
@Michael Slater,
If you have time, the Newton Police Reform Task Force did just issue their recommendations and it is available online. This is a topic which is specifically addressed.
It’s my understanding that a State Police officer was also involved in this situation (and attempted to take down Mr. Conlon with non-lethal force). Hopefully, we will see improvements and specialized mental health training in state as well as municipal law enforcement.
I understand that DA Ryan is continuing to investigate Mr. Conlon’s death. While it is within the DA’s jurisdiction to do so, this I believe is fraught with tension and potential bias/conflict since the DA’s office works so closely with police departments and officers in the cities and towns of Middlesex County. Thus, I believe there should be an independent body to investigate the use of lethal force by any municipal or state police in the Commonwealth that is wholly separate and distinct from any law enforcement department or division (DA’s office). And to be clear, I’m not suggesting that the DA’s office is biased. Rather, given the close working relationship with police, it would be better to eliminate any potential bias or conflict by having an unrelated review process.