Des Moines police officers this week began carrying wallet-sized cards produced by the Greater Des Moines chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, or NAMI Greater Des Moines, that outline what to do and what not to do when someone is having a mental health crisis. Matt Connolly, a Des Moines real estate broker and a mental health advocate, said having the cards on display at the Polk County Board of Supervisors office helped make the connection. 

Earlier this month, Connolly’s mother, Supervisor Angela Connolly, placed a supply of the cards at the front desk of the county supervisors’ office, following her participation in a panel discussion on mental health hosted by the Greater Des Moines Partnership. That led to a friend of Matt Connolly’s seeing the cards and mentioning it to her husband, who is on the Des Moines Police Department. The next day, Matt got a call from his police friend, who asked him, “How can we get these cards to put them in the visors of all our patrol cars?” 

“I went to NAMI to get the cards and distributed them to the P.D. myself,” Connolly said. “They fit a cop car’s visor like a glove, to remind these guys what to do when they get into a crisis situation.” 

The Des Moines Police Department has taken several proactive steps over the years to assist people undergoing a mental health crisis, spokesman Paul Parizek said. In 2001, the department created the Mobile Crisis Team, through which mental health professionals collaborate with police officers in the field to provide short-term crisis management. Since that time, academy and annual in-service training has been provided to officers. In 2011, the Crisis Intervention Training program expanded to a 40-hour, interactive instructional block for all new police recruits. 

Parizek said crediting all the people who have helped advance mental health awareness would require an article of its own. “A simple thanks to all the folks at DMPD, and our partners in the community, would be fair and accurate,” he said.