Mental Health Situation Statement

I am aware many of you have experienced an interaction and sometimes confrontation with a local man who has been walking around town and near homes at different hours of the day and night.  This person has also been seen riding his lawn mower around town. I want to be respectful of personal privacy as it relates to medical and mental health conditions while I try and address concerns the public has with these interactions.  

Mental health situations can be very challenging to properly address. My officers and I are very familiar with this person and his interactions with people and are very adept at trying to help him when that is possible. If you find yourself in a situation where you believe someone is in need of mental health assistance, please call us so we can come try and help get the appropriate services to that person no matter what time of day or night. If someone is on your property and they don’t want to leave, then please call us so we can come help with that situation as well. You do not have to be the person that confronts them as we can do that for you. Helping someone who is in a manic state is not always safe so please let us help in those situations and try to reduce the chances that something unfortunate happens.  

There are also times where the person in crisis does not want to be helped and we do not have enough information to involuntarily help the individual. This does not mean however that a person is allowed to stay on someone else’s property and that is definitely something we can help with.

We have received several calls at the Police Department providing this individual’s location as if we were currently looking for him. We are not looking for him at this time but appreciate those who called thinking we were.  

And as always, if you see anything criminal or any suspicious activity at any time, please call and let us know about it. The police department phone line is 785-594-3850

Thank you all for allowing us to be your police department and for caring about all our citizens.

-- Mike Pattrick, Chief of Police