GRANBY — The police department has been awarded a total of $45,000 in state grant money this month for training officers and dispatchers in crisis intervention and purchasing new security cameras for Granby Junior-Senior High School.
The Department of Mental Health provided a $25,000 grant for Crisis Intervention Training, while the Governor’s Safer Communities Initiative supplied $20,000 for the cameras.
Police Chief Alan Wishart said that the crisis intervention training will give officers “the tools they need to interact and de-escalate situations for people who are in a mental health crisis.”
“The hope is that we’ll be able to de-escalate these things before they become physical, and hopefully handle things so that when someone is in a crisis, it doesn’t amount to an issue where we have to charge them,” Wishart said.
“We want to fix the problem, not add to it,” he continued. “Any situation we can de-escalate and handle without any use of force is great.”
The funding will pay for coverage of officers who attend the training, as well as overtime. The program is offered locally by the Behavioral Health Network. Granby police have not participated in this training in the past.
Thirteen employees are currently scheduled to attend the training in the next couple weeks, and Wishart said he would like to extend the training to the entire department, which has 23 employees.
With the $20,000 grant from the Governor’s Safer Communities Initiative, Wishart said that the department hopes to purchase 24 new security cameras.
“We’re really excited to get both of those (grants) to let us do some really good things that are gonna help us make things safer in town and better prepared to handle situations,” Wishart said.
Jacquelyn Voghel can be reached at jvoghel@gazettenet.com.