The Delaware Consumers in Recovery Coalition expect more than 100 people to show up at a hearing tonight in Dover by the Delaware Department of Health and Social Services on the role of law enforcement in mental health cases.
The Wilmington News Journal reports that under current state law anyone can sign a complaint that someone is mentally ill.
That complaint gives the police the power to take someone into custody without a warrant or other legal representation.
They are then turned over to any doctor to determine whether they should be detained for evaluation.
Jim Lafferty, executive director of the Mental Health Association in Delaware, said he found it shocking that around 3-thousand people are detained for that reason each year in the state.
State Representative Mike Barbieri has sponsored legislation that would require any decision to detain a person be made by a psychiatrist or state-credentialed mental-health screener.
