Prevention is not the goal.
Dupnik had several ways to prevent this tragedy from happening.
The Sheriff could have save the 6 victims and even Jared.
I think the Sheriff is a complete idiot.
However, law enforcement have very few options that would have realistically prevented this situation. They can take a person behaving in a violent fashion to a hospital or mental health facility for evaluation but a persons constitutional rights extend to bizarre behavior as long as it does not pose a risk to people.
I took in many people suffering severe mental health issues or called a mobile crisis unit to respond and evaluate them. Unless they had good insurance they were usually medicated and bounced right out the door within 72 hours and “trusted” to take their own meds. There was very little follow-up by an already overtaxed mental health system.
I just say this to provide a little different take on it and not to argue. I understand the sentiments but from experience it is very simplistic to expect an officer to recognize the pre-cursors of Tucson shooting in one contact with an individual. I would be surprised if the same officer answered even two of the calls on Loughner.
I don’t know what the circumstances of those contacts were but most cops are not equipped (specialized education, training, and acting under a sound legal basis) to articulate reasons to involuntarily commit any person who does not pose an obvious threat to themselves or others.
I wish I had the answer but mental illness is a multifaceted problem and there are many Loughner’s out there that will not do anything like what he did. I knew many of them and don’t feel that it would have been appropriate to lock them up because they were strange, a little paranoid, or said stupid stuff. I would be very interested to know the interaction between him and his parents.