Theater company trains police to deal with crises

Rocky Mountain News Theater group trains policeCompany teaches crisis-handlingBy Sarah Huntley, News Staff WriterJune 8, 2002GOLDEN -- Today, she is "Angela," a distressed woman standing perilously close to the railing of a highway overpass, plucking leaves off a plant and tossing them onto the pavement below. She's saying a blessing, she tells the officer who responds to the emergency call. She grows agitated as the sergeant tries to persuade her to step away from the edge. A few minutes later, she encounters another officer at the same overpass. This time she tells police she's worried about a brass plate in the concrete. The plate, she says, is a government counter, keeping track of Ford trucks because the driver of every third truck is an alien. Sound crazy? To the Denver officers on the scene, it's meant to sound real. "Angela" is Lisa Banwarth-Kuhn, a member of The Crisis Company -- a theater group like no other in the country. The Crisis Company, which employs about 15 specially trained role players, travels the country helping officers learn how to communicate effectively when responding to emergency calls that involve mentally unstable people. Last month, the group trained members of Jefferson County police and sheriff's agencies. This week, they focused their efforts on Denver police, gathering at Camp George West in Golden to train candidates for the city's first crisis intervention team. "There are a lot of people out there who need specialized attention and verbal de-escalation skills," said Kristin Hansen, Crisis Company manager. "Our job is to test the officers, to push as many buttons as we can." Trained in mental illness, the role players react according to the officer's response. "The role plays are very realistic," said Sgt. Betty Gordon, who participated in this week's training. "My adrenaline gets to pumping. Now when I come up against that kind of a situation, I won't hesitate to use what I've learned." The mini-dramas are important elements of the weeklong crisis intervention training. The sessions can be so intense that officers are required to leave their service weapons locked up in case they revert to reflexes under pressure. "These people are extremely skilled," said Gene Pettit, a retired police sergeant from Albuquerque who recruited the company for the training. "They are trained to sting when someone is doing something wrong, but they are also trained to reward." The company started in 1991 when a Department of Energy representative contacted the University of New Mexico's theater program to ask if students could help with training. The company has since become private but remains based in Albuquerque. The players come from all walks of life. A few are professional actors, but there's also an artist, a teacher, mental health technicians, a food co-op worker, a retired investment banker and a jeweler, Hansen said. The work can be grueling, but Hansen said it's also rewarding. "We all want to make the world a little bit better," she said. Contact Sarah Huntley at (303) 892-5212 or huntleys@RockyMountainNews.com.