PICKAWAY COUNTY, Ohio — Levi Freeman, a corporal with the Pickaway County Sheriff's Office, has worked at the office since 2018 and all he wants to do is leave a mark.
He said going into law enforcement was never a job. It was a calling.
“You get a chance to experience the world with other people. That’s the end goal,” Freeman said. “End goal is you don’t need me in a mental health crisis.”
Mental health is a driving motivator to do better for him.
“We need to be problem solvers,” he said. “We can’t just arrest people and put them in jail.”
A couple of years ago, Freeman’s cousin died by suicide. Another of his family members has autism.
“The two of those are kind of the things that kind of spur me on to invest in myself and get more education and become more willing to either be an active listener or a partner,” Freeman said.
Recently, Freeman, the Pickaway County Sheriff’s Office and the Paint Valley ADAMH Board have partnered to provide deputies with crisis intervention team training to better handle mental distress situations with a focus on de-escalation and conflict resolution.
“Pickaway County Sheriff’s Office, and in particular Levi Freeman, has taken this outreach seriously and have made a concerted effort to de-stigmatize mental health and law enforcement,” Paint Valley ADAMH Board Executive Director Penny Dehner said. “Law enforcement officers are not to be feared and are helpful. People with any disability deserve the same right to dignity as everyone.”
Freeman’s cruiser is the mobile billboard for that effort.
“There’s been multiple opportunities for conversation starters,” he said.
Stickers on his cruiser offer phone numbers and agencies helping to tear down careless stereotypes while building communal bridges.
“...If I can help other people, I want to,” Freeman said.
Sheriff Matthew Hafey provided the following statement concerning the new partnership with ADAMH:
“We at the Sheriff’s Office work diligently to serve all the citizens of Pickaway County and by providing better mental health training and resources, we are able to better accomplish that. We continually strive to provide mental health support and services to the citizens who need them.”