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Thousands Of Chicago Cops To Be Trained On Dealing With Mentally Ill

By Kate Shepherd in News on Jan 29, 2016 6:30PM

The City of Chicago wants police officers and 911 operators to better handle violent incidents with mentally ill people, City Hall announced Friday morning.

About 12,000 of the Chicago Police Department's officers and supervisors will get 40 hours of training "on techniques and best practices to de-escalate interactions with individuals in crisis, particularly people with mental illnesses," according to a news release.

The Office of Emergency Management and Communications is also set to develop training to help emergency dispatchers determine when to send out an officer. There are also plans to increase the amount of officers trained on how deal with tense encounters without force by 50 percent, from 2,800 from 1,890.

This is all part of Mayor Rahm Emanuel's work to try to reform the Chicago Police Department in the wake of several scandals and a federal probe into the department's use of force.