Monterey police officer receives award at CIT Conference

Nearly a thousand law enforcement and mental health professionals from across the country are in Monterey this week for the International Crisis Intervention Team Conference.

Training is half the battle but being recognized for the work performed is the true test for these officers.

Amid the collective murmuring and the sound of lunch, Officer Paul Oelfke had no idea.

Much to his surprise, he had just won the Mark Tyler Schmidt Award for his service helping military vets.

“You don’t really know where the situation is going, where it came from or where it’s going to, so it’s kind of an at the moment process,” Oelfke said.

He is one of only a handful of officers locally trained to handle vets with PTSD. He told us one time he encountered a vet in crisis dressed in full military camouflage clutching what the vet thought were his weapons.

“We saw them as toys, he saw them as his lifeline,” he said. “One of the things that I learned through my training with the Monterey County Behavioral Health was that these veterans are handed these firearms and those are their tie to life.”

Armed with that knowledge, Oelfke was able to talk to the vet and get him help. These efforts earned him the award named after Sally and Mark Schmidt’s son.

“This allows us a chance to be proud again, to recover, again, it’s a piece of our recovery,” said Sally Schmidt.

The Marine committed suicide in 2012 and Tuesday they stood on stage to honor him and Oelfke simultaneously.

“Pulling somebody over for running a stop sign doesn’t have the same kind of reward as helping somebody out of a crisis and getting them the resources that they need,” Oelfke said.

On Wednesday, Monterey County Behavioral Health will present a special interview Mark Tyler Schmidt gave to Salinas police a few years ago before he died. The interview shows what is going on in his head, dealing with PTSD. Oelfke said he’s already seen the interview and it motivated him to do the work that landed him that award.