This is an archived article and the information in the article may be outdated. Please look at the time stamp on the story to see when it was last updated.

SACRAMENTO —

One video clip serves as a glaring example of police mistreatment  – a mentally -ill woman being beaten beside a freeway last July by an office from the California Highway Patrol.

Then this year – a mentally-ill man threatening police and a south Sacramento neighborhood was taken into custody by a police dog,

It all happened without loss of life after intense work by negotiators.

They’re one negative and one positive outcome at the intersection of law enforcement and one of the biggest social concerns on city streets today – mental illness.

“When law enforcement isn’t aware of it and they see behavior they consider questionable or aberrant, often the first response is something that ends up being a tragedy,” Dr. Nicki King, with the ‘California Reducing Disparities Project’ at the University of California at Davis.

A discussion hosted Thursday by the American Society for Public Administration was way to intensify the conversation about how to handle the situations officers must respond to when someone calls  9-1-1.

Delphine Brody with the Icarus Project wants her major depressive disorder and post traumatic stress to be seen as the mad gifts she regards them as.

“I can’t argue that I experience those symptoms…but I don’t see myself as a collection of deficits,” she said.

And she doesn’t want officers to see her as deficient either.

She’s trying to open minds behind badges to the concept that a mental diagnosis doesn’t mean a person is just  a problem.

Most of the suggestions officers heard at the forum were all about method.

“Reaching out to the person, doing active listening, having an empathetic approach,” said Brody.

Officers from the CHP, Elk Grove, and Sacramento county sheriff’s department are acknowledging they’re all working hard to improve on a difficult issue.

“For the sheriff’s dept we’re going to have a  co-response model where a mental health clinician will be paired up in a car with person with lived experience… and they will co-respond with deputies on scene,” said Deputy Kim Mojica with the Sacramento County Sheriff’s department.

Some in the crowd still believe the biggest help won’t come from a new program, but instead from something old-fashioned.

“Common courtesy…common courtesy for every single person.”