One night time in October 2021, Armando Navejas wandered away from his residence in El Paso, Texas. The 70-year-old had Parkinson’s illness and dementia, and his household mentioned he may barely communicate. Scared for his security, his spouse Josephine referred to as 911 for assist monitoring him down.
By 2 a.m., Navejas was again in entrance of his home, shirtless and ambling round. In response to video from a neighbor’s residence safety digicam, an officer approached, shining a flashlight in Navejas’ face. Navejas appeared agitated, choosing up a string of wood blocks and strolling towards the cop, who retreated behind a parked automobile. Navejas threw the wooden limply towards the officer; it landed on the windshield.
When Navejas turned away, the officer walked across the car and fired a stun gun at Navejas’ again. His physique went inflexible. He fell face-first onto the sidewalk.
A neighbor’s residence safety digicam captured Navejas’ encounter with an El Paso police officer.
Navejas arrived within the emergency room that night time with “a number of facial fractures” and bleeding round his mind, medical data present. He by no means got here residence — he died in a rehabilitation facility in March of unrelated pure causes, in response to a dying certificates.
The El Paso Police Division deemed the usage of pressure “cheap and essential,” a spokesperson mentioned in an e mail. However Navejas’ daughter, Debbie Navejas Aguilar, is suing two officers and town for the “excessive bodily and psychological damage” to her dad.
“They acted like he had a gun,” she mentioned in an interview. “It is a 70-year-old man who’s misplaced in his personal head. I simply don’t perceive it.”
Because the U.S. inhabitants ages and extra folks develop dementia, older individuals are more and more working into issues with the police. Any use of pressure or arrest could be devastating for somebody who’s already bodily and mentally fragile, like Navejas. Whereas many cities are altering how they reply to psychological well being calls — together with whether or not police ought to be current in any respect — much less consideration has been paid to the distinctive dangers in instances involving folks with Alzheimer’s and different mind illnesses.
There’s no nationwide rely of how many individuals with dementia are arrested every year. However an evaluation of U.S. crime information by The Marshall Undertaking reveals that the variety of arrests of individuals over 65 grew by practically 30% between 2000 and 2020 — on the similar time that general arrests fell by practically 40%. The variety of elder arrests is rising sooner than the inhabitants is growing old. Older Individuals are nonetheless a small portion of general arrests — lower than 2%.
Nationwide information from the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention additionally estimates that from 2010 to 2020, over 12,000 folks 65 and older ended up in a hospital emergency room for accidents brought on by police or non-public safety.
Police Arresting Extra Older Individuals
From 2000 to 2020, arrests of individuals age 65 and older elevated by practically 30%, whereas arrests general declined, in response to crime information collected by the FBI. Arrests of older folks nonetheless represented lower than 2% of all arrests in 2020.
Severe instances have come to gentle throughout the nation, typically captured on police physique cams. In Loveland, Colorado, in 2020, 73-year-old Karen Garner, who had dementia, was violently arrested for making an attempt to steal $14 of merchandise from Walmart. The officer who pinned her to the bottom and broke her arm was sentenced to 5 years in jail. In 2021, police in Tulsa, Oklahoma, taunted a 70-year-old lady with late-onset bipolar dysfunction, earlier than tackling and jailing her.
In Las Cruces, New Mexico, this April, an officer shot and killed 75-year-old Amelia Baca, who had dementia, as she stood holding two massive kitchen knives within the doorway of her residence. Her household has since settled a $2.75 million lawsuit with town.
Police are sometimes referred to as to trace down individuals who have gotten misplaced, arrest confused shoplifters, or intervene in home disputes. However many officers could not have enough coaching on dementia.
Some older folks can nonetheless pose an actual menace, no matter age or cognition. However interactions with police can even escalate just because somebody is confused or can’t observe an officer’s directions. Dementia and Alzheimer’s could make it tough for folks to speak. That confusion can appear aggressive if the particular person is overwhelmed or afraid.
“Even handcuffing an individual with dementia could possibly be extraordinarily traumatic,” mentioned Eilon Caspi, a gerontologist and dementia habits specialist on the College of Connecticut. From transport in a police cruiser to interrogation to jailing, any a part of an arrest “may actually be a terror,” he mentioned.
In Largo, Florida, the place greater than 1 in 4 residents is 65 years or older, Joel Quattlebaum is the senior providers officer for town police division. Whereas he primarily helps older adults who’re victims of crime, he will get despatched to a variety of calls involving older residents.
“These days legislation enforcement is used as a social useful resource,” Quattlebaum mentioned, whereas a name for a welfare verify on a lady in disaster rang out from his police radio. He’s licensed by the Nationwide Council for Licensed Dementia Practitioners, and helps prepare new recruits. “Individuals simply need assistance on the market now. They try to name different locations, and so they get voicemails or on waitlists which might be years lengthy.”
Best practices for coping with dementia sufferers — staying calm, affected person and versatile — could go towards officers’ want for compliance when making an arrest, consultants say.
“We all know what works greatest is to speak slowly and calmly, ask easy questions, don’t argue with the particular person,” mentioned Monica Moreno, a senior director on the Alzheimer’s Affiliation. Together with the U.S. Justice Division, the affiliation has offered on-line coaching for over 31,000 emergency responders on how one can acknowledge and reply to folks with the illness.
“The methods are drastically completely different from what [officers] could also be studying of their on a regular basis coaching,” she mentioned.
That disconnect can have grave penalties. This spring, deputies with the Warren County Sheriff in Entrance Royal, in northern Virginia, stopped 77-year-old Ralph Ennis for erratic driving. The sheriff’s workplace mentioned Ennis, who had dementia, initially refused to tug over and observe deputies’ orders. When Ennis received out of the automobile, physique cam footage captured by the Entrance Royal Police Division (a separate company) reveals a deputy slammed Ennis’ head towards the truck whereas pinning his arms behind his again. A second deputy then tackled Ennis to the bottom, hitting the older man’s head on the concrete, in response to physique cam footage cited in a lawsuit filed by his son. “Please let me up!” Ennis cried out, with two officers on prime of him. “Let me go!”
A Entrance Royal police officer who watched the arrest was shaken by what he’d simply seen. “That was fucking unjust and fucking un-fucking-called for,” he’s heard saying in his physique digicam video. “Jesus Christ.”
Ralph Ennis, who had dementia, was pulled over by Warren County sheriff’s deputies in Virginia in 2022. Deputies slammed Ennis’ head towards the truck and tackled him to the bottom.
Ennis was hospitalized with an enormous mind bleed and died two weeks later. (A medical expert deemed he died of pure causes.) The lawsuit by Ennis’ son, filed in August towards the 2 deputies, claims they used extreme pressure that precipitated his father’s dying. In court docket filings, each officers denied any wrongdoing.
Chief Deputy Jeffrey Driskill with the Warren County Sheriff’s Division mentioned in an e mail he couldn’t touch upon the case, given the pending lawsuit and prison investigation, however confirmed one of many officers concerned is not with the division. A Virginia prosecutor remains to be reviewing the case.
All officers in Virginia obtain primary coaching in “speaking with individuals with cognitive impairments,” Driskill wrote. “Our company prides itself in being proactive in coping with the aged.”
Navejas was dwelling along with his spouse in Austin, Texas, when it turned clear that his thoughts was deteriorating, his daughter mentioned. He began leaving ice cream within the fridge or throwing away the trash can together with the bag. His stroll turned to a shuffle, and he misplaced weight. Brilliant lights and loud noises overwhelmed him. His voice thinned till all of it however disappeared, leaving him with nothing however hand gestures and his distinct snicker. The couple determined to maneuver again to El Paso, Navejas’ hometown, to be nearer to household.
He started leaving residence, ready till Josephine was within the rest room to slide out the backdoor. Josephine, who had glaucoma and used a wheelchair, needed to name 911 for assist, as she couldn’t drive at night time or journey with out a automobile. His daughter mentioned officers would discover Navejas strolling in a close-by condo complicated or sitting on the curb at a gasoline station down the road, and easily carry him again.
El Paso Police say their officer was responding to “a name of an assault” the night time of the tasing. Josephine Navejas instructed native reporters and her lawyer that she referred to as 911 over a lacking particular person, and that she alerted the dispatcher that her husband had dementia and Parkinson’s. The division has refused to launch the 911 name from that October night time or the physique cam footage from officers on the scene, saying it might intervene with an “open case.”
The officer who used a stun gun on Navejas had been with the pressure lower than three years, data present, and had acquired coaching on disaster intervention and coping with individuals who have a psychological impairment.
The division launched a Disaster Intervention Group in 2019, pairing officers with a licensed clinician to answer psychological well being calls. When the native Fox TV station requested why police didn’t ship a disaster unit to the Navejas’ home that night time, the division responded, “Dementia is just not thought of a psychological well being subject that CIT would reply to.”
In an e mail to The Marshall Undertaking, division spokesperson Sgt. Enrique Carrillo mentioned the disaster staff wasn’t despatched that night time as a result of the “first obtainable unit” is distributed to calls “of violence.”
El Paso Police, like many departments, doesn’t have a selected coverage for calls involving dementia. However in response to their coverage on psychological well being calls, officers are speculated to method folks “in an unhurried, deliberate, calm, and pleasant method” and information them to a “secure and quiet space.” When deciding what degree of pressure, if any, to make use of, they need to take into account the menace posed by the person, the chance of damage, and the particular person’s “age, dimension, [and] relative power.”
Carrillo mentioned pressure was wanted to manage the scenario, after Navejas threw one thing towards the officer. “The officer opted for a much less deadly use of pressure to mitigate the chance of damage to himself and to the offender assaulting him,” Carrillo wrote. “Using pressure in any case isn’t a nice expertise for anybody concerned, sadly at instances it turns into essential.”
Police typically encounter folks dwelling with dementia when different assist methods have failed, particularly as public budgets for growing old and social providers dwindle. Some stroll away from residence when caregivers aren’t watching. And the variety of folks over 65 who’re homeless — a gaggle that could be a frequent goal of police stops — is anticipated to just about triple within the subsequent decade. Officers may be referred to as into nursing houses or assisted dwelling amenities when staff are overwhelmed or lack ample coaching. In a current survey by the American Well being Care Affiliation, 98% of nursing residence suppliers reported they have been understaffed, which might make it tougher to diffuse conflicts between residents.
Information from a number of police departments present these nursing residence incidents can simply escalate. In Columbus, Ohio, in 2020, police pepper-sprayed a 97-year-old man with dementia within the face and pinned him to the bottom. He had did not adjust to orders to drop a pair of small scissors that officers mentioned threatened his spouse, in response to a police report. The person solely spoke Mandarin Chinese language. In one other incident in Columbus in 2018, police have been referred to as to assist with an 84-year-old lady with Alzheimer’s who was agitated and hitting workers and different residents; she ended up handcuffed so tightly her wrist bled, and she or he was placed on a psychiatric maintain, a police report reveals.
In an e mail, a spokesperson for the Columbus Police Division wouldn’t touch upon particular instances, however mentioned the division supplies common coaching on use of pressure and interacting with folks with dementia, autism, and different situations.
Police are referred to as to nursing houses “extra typically than we predict,” mentioned Caspi, the gerontologist. The primary responder wants “to be the one who creates calm, and reassures the particular person. Can we create a mannequin the place there’s a designated social employee every time an officer goes to a nursing residence, who can create the situations for this to go properly?”
Some cities are attempting to do exactly that, and questioning whether or not armed police are the precise folks to ship to calls of individuals in psychological misery. A rising variety of communities have launched disaster response applications to deal with nonviolent 911 calls involving psychological sickness or cognitive impairment. The groups, typically made up of paramedics and counselors, have extra time to spend on every name, are specifically skilled in navigating crises, and might join folks with social providers for extra long-term assist.
Tianna Audet leads the Neighborhood Help and Life Liaison program in St. Petersburg, Florida, which launched final yr. To date, 17% of their purchasers have been 65 years or older, together with two 100-year-olds, a number of 99-year-olds and a handful of nursing residence calls. The staff is dispatched to “non-criminal” calls, however are additionally referred to as in as backup when officers resolve the disaster staff could be a greater response.
“Officers go together with a gun and a badge and handcuffs,” Audet mentioned. “They simply weren’t skilled to be social staff. We’re filling the hole the place they do not have the coaching or the time.”
For the Navejas household, life received even tougher after his run-in with police. A month after he was hospitalized, his spouse fell whereas at residence alone and broke each of her hips and a knee. She was hospitalized and died in February of liver most cancers, on the other finish of the identical nursing residence hallway from her husband, their daughter mentioned. Armando died simply six weeks later.
Aguilar filed a lawsuit in June, searching for financial damages and claiming that her father’s dying was largely because of his accidents from being shocked with a stun gun. Aguilar mentioned what she actually needs is an apology — one thing a settlement probably received’t give her. Of their response to the lawsuit, metropolis attorneys denied that extreme pressure was used.
“It’s been a nightmare,” Aguilar mentioned. “If I used to be there, I may have spoken for him, or been there for my mother. It simply repeats in my head on a regular basis. This didn’t must occur.”
