Charles Matherson grew up in the Shallowford area of Chattanooga and attended Ooltewah Middle School, right across the street from the apartment he lives in now.
Mr. Matherson, a lifelong sports fan, dreamed of becoming a coach, but was never able to make that dream come true because of his special needs. He will be the first to tell you that he has battled learning disabilities and issues with mental health for years. That battle very nearly got the better of him on June 5.
“I called the crisis line for (Parkridge) Valley because life (had become) just a burden to me,”
Mr. Matherson said, describing his feelings of hopelessness and despair that day that convinced him to finally call for help.
Officer Sammy Previlus with the Collegedale Police Department received the call.
Officer Previlus is a Crisis Intervention Training (C.I.T.) trained officer. The program specializes
in providing assistance to people in a mental health crisis. Officer Previlus said the program was created because law enforcement wasn’t being trained to work with and help people struggling with mental illness. People experiencing crisis were not being recognized as being in crisis and were just being taken to jail only to be released and arrested again, creating a never-ending, toxic cycle.
Officer Previlus and his back-up, Officer Edwin Rojas, arrived at Mr. Matherson’s front door and
were invited into the home. While inside Officer Previlus got a very upset Mr. Matherson to sit down and talk, before eventually gaining his trust and his agreement to go to the hospital for a mental health evaluation.
When asked what made Officer Previlus so easy to talk to, Mr. Matherson smiled and said “I felt
comfortable around him. He helped me out. He was kind.”
Officer Previlus says they bonded over football.
While speaking with Mr. Matherson, the officer, an NFL fan, saw a Ben Roethlisberger Steelers
jersey hanging in his closet and asked Mr. Matherson if he had a Terrible Towel, an iconic symbol of “To Protect, With Respect” the Pittsburg Steelers. Mr. Matherson said no. They had always been too hard to find and he couldn’t afford to buy one for himself. So Officer Previlus decided to use their shared membership in the “Steelers Nation” to connect with a man in need.
Officer Previlus was able to gain Mr. Matherson’s trust, talk him down from the edge of crisis and
get him to the mental health professionals that could help him, but the story didn’t end there.
On June 14, Officer Previlus returned to Mr. Matherson’s apartment, not to answer a call for service, but instead to check on a friend, and he came bearing gifts - a Pittsburg Steelers Terrible Towel and a football signed by the officers of the Collegedale Police Department.
“I wasn’t expecting that,” Mr. Matherson said, with a grin. “I still got it in the box it came in. I’m
not going to take it out.”
To Officer Previlus, or "Sammy" as his friends know him, it’s about being invested in his
community.
Officer Previlus, who has been with the Collegedale Police Department since 2018, says that the
direction his police department is now heading allows him and other officers to use a community
policing model in order to better reach out and connect with the citizens the agency serves.
“I think a lot of people that police respond to just need someone to care,” he said. “You don’t
have to do much to leave a lasting impact. Just a thoughtful gesture goes a long way. There’s
more to law enforcement than just enforcing the law."