Not all Utah officers get mental-crisis training

Although some law enforcement officers across the state receive specific training that helps deal with a person experiencing a mental crisis, mental health officials say the number of officers receiving that training could be much higher.

That need for more training has left some wondering if the death of an Arizona man — Brian Cardall — who died this week after being hit with a Taser by a Hurricane police officer, could have possibly been avoided.

The Salt Lake Police Department provides crisis intervention training for police agencies across the state. Crisis intervention training helps officers who complete the course to identify characteristics of various mental disorders and teaches them how to adapt their approaches in those situations.

National Alliance on Mental Illness Utah's executive director Sherri Wittwer says Utah's 40-hour training program is the "gold standard" of training courses in that area.

"It is an excellent program that is available to agencies, but we need more of them to participate in that training," she said.

Hurricane police have repeatedly refused to provide details about what happened to Cardall, and the Washington County Critical Task Force is investigating the incident. It consists of a group of detectives from throughout the county that investigates homicides and police-related deaths.

What little information is known is that officers and medical personnel responded to a call for assistance with an agitated man on state Route 59 Tuesday. At some point, a Hurricane police officer deployed a Taser and Cardall, 32, lost consciousness. Cardall was treated within moments by paramedics but was pronounced dead after being transported to a local hospital.

Cardall is the son of KSL editorial director Duane Cardall.

Family members say Brian Cardall and his wife, who is six months pregnant, had been visiting his family in Salt Lake City. As they were driving home to Flagstaff, Ariz., his wife said Cardall, who is bipolar, was having an episode and that prompted them to pull over in order to medicate him.

At some point, Cardall got out of the vehicle and began to run down the road. That's when his wife called 911. She later learned he had been hit with a Taser and was unresponsive.

According to NAMI Utah, some rural and smaller agencies across the state have sent officers to receive the crisis intervention training, but the majority that have attended have been from the bigger cities across the Wasatch Front.

"It is valuable training that benefits people with mental illness, their families, the officers that respond to these incidents and the community as a whole," Wittwer said.