With increased responsibilities being given to local law enforcement and the increased problems with mental health care across the state, police officers are being asked to perform duties that many have not been trained to handle.

Chief Dan Losada with the Knoxville Police Department says he would like to see his officers better trained when it comes to mental health situations. Losada said he’d like to see more community resources as well as sufficient training for his officers to deal with offenders suffering from mental illness. Each year across the nation approximately two million jail bookings involve a person with mental illness while approximately 15% of men and 30% of women in local jails have a serious mental illness according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness.