A group of police officers training to assist mentally ill subjects were seeing things and hearing voices themselves
This week a group of police officers training to assist mentally ill subjects were seeing things and hearing voices themselves.
It was all to a good end, to help them avoid misunderstandings that can lead to deadly confrontations when they encounter a distraught and frightened mentally ill person.
Wearing goggles and earphones hooked up to software called Virtual Hallucinations, the officers were able to see and hear what a schizophrenic person might experience _ disembodied voices and visual hallucinations.
The technology was made available for training to Crisis Intervention Team officers from the Memphis Police Department and other agencies.
The mentally disturbed person "is experiencing something that is very threatening," said Maj. Sam Cochran, who runs the CIT program.
"Maybe he is not seeing me as a police officer but as a devil ... or the voices are telling him not to believe me," Cochran said.