DENVER (CBS) – The Denver Police Department is currently sending all of its officers through crisis intervention training, and they say it really paid off Thursday afternoon.
That’s when officers responded to a call of a man threatening people with a knife along the South Platte River near Santa Fe and Florida Avenue.
(credit: CBS)
For more than an hour Steven Anderson, 35 of Denver, kept police at bay. At one point he actually waded into the river with a knife he was carrying. Police say he was threatening them and was also a danger to himself.
(credit: CBS)
Police say their crisis training kicked in during the incident. An officer spent nearly an hour constantly talking to Anderson as police repeatedly threw a flotation device connected to a rope to him.
Technician Susan Gann was also right by that officer’s side during the effort.
“He was able to get the gentleman to finally put (the knife) in the flotation device,” Gann said. “Which was the main thing because we wanted to know where the knife was and eventually to get him to let go of the knife so we could retrieve it and get it out of play and make sure we could get him into custody safely.”
That’s exactly what the crisis intervention training is designed to do.
CBS4’s Jeff Todd interviews Technician Susan Gann. (credit: CBS)
“Once you recognize you have this particular challenge then having the skill set you learn in the CIT class, you’re able to work with that and have an optimal outcome,” Gann said.
“The primary focus is in our training is officer safety and community safety.”
Once Anderson gave up the knife, police officers and firefighters plunged into the South Platte to take him into custody. They chased after him and captured him in a waist-deep section of the water.
(credit: CBS)
(credit: CBS)
Anderson was taken to the hospital but will likely face a charge of felony menacing.
