More Chicago Cops Training To Handle The Mentally Ill

(CBS) -- Chicago police hit a milestone on Monday -- one they hope will help on each and every call they take.

CBS 2's Marissa Bailey goes inside the classrooms where officers are learning how to handle mental health patients.

December 2012: Philip Coleman suffers a mental breakdown and assaults his mother.

His father called police and told them his son was mentally unstable.

Coleman died after he was Tasered while in custody.

His case demonstrates that officers on the front lines need more than just tactical training.

Alexa James is a clinical social worker. She teaches Chicago police officers about mental health -- how to spot it and how to react.

"The police have really absorbed the social ills in the community and now they are supposed to respond in the best way, with the least amount of force as they can," she says. "The issue is, they haven't gotten enough training."

Since 2004, some 2,000 officers have been trained. There is now one officer trained in mental health response at every precinct for every shift.

It's a voluntary 40-hour program.

James says response has been great, and officers crave the additional tools.

The family of a woman killed by Chicago police on scene of a mental health call in December calls the training "too little too late."

If you call police because of a mental health incident, ask dispatchers to send a "C-I-T" officer.

They have gone through the mental health training.