Benefits Of Crisis Intervention Teams

Picture this you are police officer on duty being dispatched to the International Airport with the description of an individual male in his mid-thirty’s making usual contact with TSA. When you arrive on the scene, you begin to approach the individual and try to engage in conversation. The man begins to yell at you and tell you this is matter of national security and I need to speak with an FBI agent. At that point you try to collect information from him, such his name and what he is doing at the airport. The man keeps yelling at you then proceeds to tell you, do you see that? As he points to something next you that does not exist. The man becomes angry and tells you, I need to speak with an FBI agent at once, he becomes more agitated and takes

Lynne Bibeau, PhD.

The focus is on what Crisis Intervention Teams (CIT) bring to the community and how these models help to promote safety in the community. The CIT model has become a very widely accepted program through out many police departments across the country. Through the CIT model police departments are focusing on improving outcomes a better resources and help for the mentally ill individuals officers come into contact with. The emphases on the CIT model for a specific time frame and statistically compared the program outcomes to before the program was implemented.

When police whom are not CIT certified come into contact with individuals whom do not obey commands and are enable to effectively communicate. These police officers may not know the signs to look for in someone whom suffers from mental illness or a drug induced psychosis. Police officers whom complete the 40hour CIT program are able to defuse crisis situations and are able to see the signs of mental illness and drug induced psychosis. The study observed 200 CIT trained officers in Las Vegas. The CIT program in Las Vegas is a modified program from the original program which was created and implemented by the Memphis police department. By studying the programs goals which were to promote the use referrals to hospitals and mental health facilities. With also focusing on lowering the percentage of arrest rates and lowering the use of

Methodology

The methodology for this study will be both quantitative and qualitative analysis of the data collected from the CIT program through the Albuquerque Police Department (APD). The form of data collection will be a sample collection of police reports over a 36 month period. In these reports the focus will be on what type of encounter occurred, what took place, and what were the outcomes, and was the CIT model for APD used.

The ethical considerations for this study are protecting the identity of the police officer and the individuals they come into contact with. This must be emphasized because the level of protection not only for the police officers but also for the mentally ill. The mentally ill are a protected by HIPAA laws, and in this study I need to be mindful of these laws and make sure I do not break any of them. Another consideration is the fact I am studying human subjects and their behavior in certain situations, in turn I will have to get IRB