“Taking such a man into your home is both dangerous and possibly hazardous. Some, who are merely down on their luck, can be helped but the untrained should never take in anyone with a true mental condition. This man obviously has a mental problem. The Police can keep taking him to Bergen Pines, but he can’t be kept there unless he agrees to treatment. One of the “Defund the Police” suggestions is to keep a specially trained social worker on staff who can be called to go with a police officer to try to defuse this situation. Most officers, however, have been trained to deal with this themselves and, in Ridgewood at least, that would probably be a duplication of services.”
