Brian Kohlmeier
A local Police Chief says that people have a right in this country to own firearms, but in the wake of recent multiple mass shootings “something needs to be done.”
During a recent appearance on WOMT’s Be My Guest program, Two Rivers Police Chief Brian Kohlmeier explained what he’d like to see occur.
“I think more background checks, and red flags regarding mental health issues certainly is a step in the right direction,” he said. “It’s difficult. It’s definitely not going to solve the problem…but it’s a step in the right direction.”
Although there’s no room in the budget at this time, Kohlmeier is a major proponent of adding staff to deal with mental health issues.
“We would love to have a situation where we have a full-time case worker, like a human services worker, at the PD,” he said. “If there was a crisis call or something like that, that we needed to respond to, and there are plenty of them, that they could respond with us. We need to make sure everything is safe first, but certainly, that kind of resource would be a tremendous value to our agency.”
The local law enforcement official adds that mental health issues have adjusted officers’ role into being just more than protecting the communities they serve.
Academy recruits now must undergo 720 hours of crisis intervention training, more than double from thirty years ago.
