After the fatal shooting of a 16-year-old in Dortmund in the summer, there is a debate about whether police officers are sufficiently trained in dealing with the mentally ill. Thuringia also relies on cooperation with Berlin for further training.
Erfurt (dpa/th) - The Thuringian police officers are already being prepared during their training for dealing with the mentally ill during operations. For prospective police officers in the middle service, this complex of topics is on the timetable in various subjects, said a spokesman for the Ministry of the Interior of the German Press Agency. A total of around 20 teaching units are planned for this. This also included realistic role-playing games. Most patrol officers in Thuringia belong to the middle service.
According to the ministry, the police officers are also offered training courses on how to deal with the mentally ill. "The training catalog of the Thuringian police contains, among other things, a seminar on this subject," said the spokesman. In addition, civil servants could take part in a corresponding training course in Berlin as part of a cooperation.
According to the ministry, there is no statistical survey of how often Thuringian police officers have used firearms in operations involving mentally ill people in recent years. In the summer of 2022, a youth was killed by the police in Dortmund with a submachine gun. The 16-year-old was released from a psychiatric hospital just hours before his death. The case drew national attention.
