Policing the Mentally Ill

At the U.S. Supreme Court today, the justices are hearing the case of a San Francisco woman who tried to sue the city and two of its police officers for violating her rights as a disabled person. Teresa Sheehan, who suffers from schizophrenia, was shot multiple times by police officers who were responding to a call placed by a group home Sheehan lived in. Sheehan had threatened to kill her social worker with a knife and locked herself in her room. The police knocked the door down and eventually fired, claiming Sheehan charged them with a knife. We look at this and other similar incidents around the country -- including here in L.A. -- and ask, how equipped are cops to handle suspects with mental health problems?