OGDEN -- The scene in the apartment is utter chaos.
A doped-up mother screams, "Get out! Get out!" at four police officers from her wheelchair in the living room as her son wrestles with an officer over a bottle of prescription pills in the corner, and her daughter, Trixi, tries to coax another officer into an adjacent bedroom.
Another daughter lounges on the couch with a spaced-out look while a man in a neighboring apartment screams at police to take them all to jail.
Though this was all fiction on Friday, the scenario was one that police actually encountered in Memphis, Tenn.
Now, local officers are training others how to deal with similar encounters.
The Crisis Intervention Training helps officers respond appropriately to dynamic situations involving mentally ill individuals, said Salt Lake City Police Detective Ron Bruno, program director for the weeklong event at the Swanson Tactical Training Center.
The massive warehouse facility on west 12th Street is equipped with realistic street settings and storefronts to give officers a lifelike setting for training.
Officers spent much of the week learning the symptoms of mental illness, and on Friday, with the help of dozens of actors, they ran through five scenarios in various settings so they could test what they had learned.
Bruno said the program strives to develop more of a partnership between police and mental health professionals to better serve the community. It also focuses on teaching officers what they need to do to de-escalate potentially dangerous situations.
As one of the scenarios drew to a close, officers clustered around one of the trainers and talked about what had happened. Which individuals were mentally ill, and what were they suffering from? the trainer asks. Did the daughter have schizophrenia?
The other daughter was a pill-popper and a huffer, another officer chimes in.
The actors speak up as well.
The girl playing Trixi asks if police should have let her touch them as much as they did, which leads to a back-and-forth discussion.
"This is pretty realistic so far," Ogden Police Officer Bob Evans whispers during a break in another scenario.
"Most of the actors are mental health workers or police. They're pretty good."
Ogden Police Department Patrolman Dave Gentry nursed a cup of coffee before the training began Friday morning. He had the dubious honor of acting as a machete-wielding drug addict suffering from abusive psychosis and depression.
"I've been drinking all night. I'm very buzzed," the officer deadpanned in character.
Gentry, who has a degree in psychology, enjoys acting the part to help teach other officers, though he admits his entire previous acting resume consisted of a drama class at Roy High School.
"I don't go overboard, but I do try to make it as real as possible," he said. "It's fun to watch the reaction of all the people involved for the first time."
Twenty-two officers took part in the training Friday, which was the 18th held in the state this year.
Sixteen of the trainees were from the Weber County Sheriff's Office, along with one Ogden officer, two Layton officers, a Summit County officer and two from Montana.
The Weber County Sheriff's Office has had more than 50 of its deputies take the training so far, said Deputy Mark Lowther.
Overall, about 10 percent of law enforcement officers statewide have participated, Bruno said. The goal is to get that up to 25 percent.
Those officers who have received the training will be the first to respond to crisis situations, Bruno said. That way, they gain meaningful experience to build on their training in handling dangerous cases.
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