If Mental Health Responders–Not Police–Had Come to Marquis Rivera’s Home, Would He Be Alive Today?

Jillian Snider, a retired New York police officer who now directs criminal justice and civil liberties policy at the R Street Institute – a free market-oriented think tank – has a somewhat different view. From a police protocol standpoint, she said the officers “put forth a pretty valiant effort in keeping the situation as calm and composed as humanly possible.” 

After watching the body camera footage of the first encounter, her only issue with Chiang’s actions was that he failed to follow up after learning that Rivera had a firearm. 

During her 15 years on the force, Snider said she never underwent CIT training. This training is vital when police respond to mental health crises, says Amy Watson, a professor at Wayne State University in Detroit who studies crisis services. But even CIT-trained police are not the best options for handling such emergencies. “If someone’s calling 911 with a suicidal crisis, ideally, there would be some ability to access a mobile crisis team that has more capacity to address the situation,” she said.