HD51 - Feasibility and Requirements for Utilizing the Specialized Training Program of the New River Valley Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) Program


Executive Summary:
The Memphis Police Department pioneered the Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) in1988 in response to an incident that resulted in police shooting a 27 year-old man who had a mental illness. The Memphis CIT was created for the purpose of creating a collaborative community effort to join the police, mental health professionals, and the community to develop a safe approach to mental crisis events. The model has proven so successful, that CITs are being structured nationwide to duplicate the Memphis model. The DCJS Standards and Training Section was notable to discover alternative crisis intervention models that demonstrated any greater success or utility in other states, and that this particular model has the benefit of along-standing successful pioneer program in Memphis, Tennessee.

Law Enforcement Services has worked closely with the New River Valley Crisis Intervention Team program staff in preparation to assist the two Bureau of Justice Assistance Grant sites, Mt. Rogers Community Services Board and Charlottesville/Albemarle County areas, to provide consultation to aid in developing their Crisis Intervention Team model programs. The New River Valley Crisis Intervention Team program staff will provide three 40-hour CIT training sessions in November 2006, January 2007, and March 2007 to train a total of 75 police officers, mental health professionals, and community members. In the training, police officers will learn how to recognize a mentally ill person in crisis and how to defuse the crisis. A mentally ill person may rapidly deteriorate if incarcerated, becoming more frantic and violent, thereby generating added criminal charges.

The Mt. Rogers Community Services Board and Charlottesville/Albemarle County CIT staff have coordinated with Dr. Randolph DuPont and Major Sam Cochran, founders of the Memphis CIT model, to consult with Memphis CIT staff in providing a "train the trainer" program to support the ongoing training of new officers in their own localities, as well as providing initial consultation and technical assistance to any additional sites that might begin a CIT project based on the New River Valley model. The CIT model consists of several core elements from the Memphis model, in addition to the 40-hour training for police officers. CIT sites will be assisted in recognizing the need for and creating programs that include these elements. The training component consists of 40 hours of training, broken down as to the attached report.

The benefits of implementing a CIT program extend to mental health consumers, mental health professionals and law enforcement officers. CITs provide an opportunity to build collaborative community relationships that allow for law enforcement officers to be more efficient and effective in performing their job functions, immediate crisis response to mental health consumers, and provides established procedures for mental health professionals in crisis situations. The result is decreased victimless crime arrests, decreased use of restraints due to violence, a decrease in officer injuries, officers become better trained in the use of de-escalation techniques, an increase in officer appreciation by the community, and the cost savings of processing fewer individuals through the criminal justice system. Cost savings efforts also extend to the localities that establish a CIT, as it utilizes the trained CIT officers and existing mental health professionals in the successful program, the New River Valley CIT, to mentor and counsel new program professionals in the Mount Rogers Community Services Board CIT.