Highway patrol vows change

There’s room for improvement when it comes to how California Highway Patrol officers interact with mentally ill people, CHP Commissioner Joe Farrow recently conceded.

CHP came under fire in July after a video of Officer Daniel Andrew—who has since resigned—repeatedly punching a mentally confused 51-year-old woman on the side of a Los Angeles freeway went viral, according to The Sacramento Bee. During a meeting with mental illness advocates, lawmakers, public health officials and law enforcement agents on Nov. 12, Farrow vowed to change the way CHP officers are trained.

Currently, CHP training complies with state police training standards—eight hours of instruction on handling disabled individuals, two hours of scenario training and an additional eight hours of crisis intervention training for field officers.

Before changes can be implemented, however, CHP must determine where funding for additional training would come from and whether legislation is necessary.