CIRCLEVILLE — One of the Pickaway County Sheriff’s Office cruisers has some new decals as part of an initiative to provide information on mental health resources in the community.
Corporal Levi Freeman, a deputy with the Pickaway County Sheriff’s Office and School Resource Officer at Teays Valley, is the one with the keys to this particular cruiser and was behind the idea to include the resources. Freeman was named by the Paint Valley ADAMH Board as the 2021 Crisis Intervention Training (CIT) Advocate of the Year and he sits on the CIT steering committee.
Freeman said the idea to do this was grounded in the fact that he has one family member that died as a result of suicide and another who has a spectrum disorder.
“We have a number of people that are involved in different things like the Sheriff is on the board at Haven House. We have a number of people in civic groups and things like [Seniors and Law Enforcement Together] but a position that is celebrated is a position to bring our outreach goals to mental health and with neurodiverse indviduals,” he said. “It’s a conversation starter. I’ve had a number of kids, including some with selective mutism, and some of them are terrified of law enforcement.
Having a monopoly on using force on people can be scary because a lot of what you see is a negative view. Being able to be a moving billboard, I may not be the person that shows up but it’s something that we do.”
Freeman said there were goals of the vehicle — to “underscore the hard work” are law enforcement is already doing and to advertise that willingness to view everyone inclusively and as a whole person.
“I am grateful for the support of the Scioto and Paint Valley communities with this initiative,” Freeman said. “ Sheriff Hafey, Chief Deputy [James] Brown and the Paint Valley ADAMH Board have been great allies by supporting me with this project which recognizes neurodiversity and amplifies mental health advocacy. Neurodiversity encompasses how we all experience and perceive reality differently. This project highlights mental illnesses and cognitive disabilities that are within the spectrum of neurodiversity.”
Freeman said he’s happy with how it turned out and he’s already got ideas for the next vehicle they do, after the current cruiser is rotated out in a few years.
“I really like it, it creates a lot of opportunity for different conversations,” Freeman, who is also on the ADAMH Board, said. “It makes law enforcement a bit more approachable. We do press releases but it’s usually explaining when bad things are happening. We don’t have a billboard of things we’re good at. I now get to enjoy driving the billboard.”
The mental health resources include 988, the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, 211, a resource center for answers to questions and available resources, and the Veterans Crisis Line 1-88-273-8255. Also on the rear window is a rainbow infinity sign with hands above the words Neurodiversity and Recognize-Embrace-Advocacy.
Freeman said when it comes to the numbers, they’re not advertised well.
“With some of the students at our schools and with the pandemic years, it’s been really tough on our kids,” he said. “Being able to have something that stands out, is colorful and grabs your attention...is a good thing.”
Freeman said he wants people to know he, like many of his officers, doesn’t want to arrest people who are in crisis that haven’t done anything wrong.
“We’re not interested in using force. We’re really more interested in recognizing and having situational awareness and recognizing maybe not even a crisis but someone whose struggling with something,” he said. “It’s about embracing them when they feel like they don’t have a voice. In a perfect world you wouldn’t call us for a mental health crisis.”
Freeman said the mental health numbers are all under the umbrella of neurodiversity.
“So is Rett Syndrome, autism, ADHD and Tourette’s,” he said. “Being able to understand people holistically and recognizing a crisis for them in a way we can’t relate and recognizing it’s not menial. We’re trying to bridge the gap and demystify law enforcement.”
Ultimately, Freeman said it’s about treating people with kindness and being inclusive and receptive to them, even when you may think differently than they do.
“If it’s someone that you disagree with and may not get along with you can still recognize they are a holistic individual,” he said. “All of us are trying to recognize, embrace and advocate. The windows on the side say I’m here, I’m willing to listen to you and I’m willing to be an ally. I may not be able to fix the problem but you’re not going to go through it alone.”
Pickaway County Sheriff Matthew Hafey said the vehicle is not totally re-skinned like the D.A.R.E. vehicle because Freeman is also a crash scene reconstructionist and will still take his vehicle out on service calls when school is not in service.
“We wanted to keep it as a regular patrol where like the D.A.R.E. vehicle isn’t used at all,” Hafey said. “Levi has been doing a great job pushing the [crisis intervention training] stuff and it’s already proven itself.”
Hafey shared a story that someone the sheriffs’ office recently helped, who was in jail over the holidays, wrote him a letter thanking him and deputies for talking with him during the event and eventually talking him down.
“It could have went really south really quickly but they just talked to him and it all ended well,” Hafey said.
Penny Dehner, Scioto Paint Valley ADAMH Executive Director, said she appreciated the Pickaway County Sheriff’s Office and Freeman for their work.
“That attitude and culture doesn’t exist in every law enforcement agency throughout our state,” she said.
