ST. PAUL, Minn. - An increase in the number of calls related to mental health prompted the St. Paul Police Department to launched a new mental health unit.
Each day, the four officers will look over police reports and keep track of those that are mental health-related.
On Tuesday, they discussed a man who has come in contact with police 32 times in the last year.
“Littering, trespassing and assault," said Sgt. Jamie Sipes, Mental Health Coordinator with St. Paul Police.
The unit is responsible for following up with this man and similar people to see if they need mental health help.
"Sometimes it's going to be a phone call, sometimes a home visit," said Sipes.
The goal is to avoid situations like what happened in January of 2015.
After a standoff with police, Robert Wood surrendered and shot an officer in the face with a high-powered pellet gun.
"His mental health care worker called saying it appeared he was in crisis," said Sipes.
Since 2013, police say Wood had come into contact with police 10 times before that situation.
"If we had a history of calls and knew that he was connected with a case manager or social worker or crisis worker we might have had more contact with that person to know the history and build a relationship with Robert," said Sipes.
And the Mental Health Unit is needed. According to St. Paul Police, the number of calls for service related to mental health has doubled since 2004.
And out of all the calls St. Paul Police received in 2016, almost 15 percent were mental health related.