Policing and Crisis Intervention Policies

Wichita, KS did a pilot project.

I work for the Houston Police Department. We have crisis intervention program. You can read more about it here: https://www.houstoncit.org/cirt/

Do you work for or with a local law enforcement agency?

Hi Elaine,

I work for a private child welfare agency in East Tennessee, which is trauma informed/responsive, and we do a lot of training in the community on trauma responsive practices.  We have been asked by a local sherriff's department to present a session on ACEs and Crisis De-escalation as a part of a larger 40-hour Crisis Intervention Training (CIT), in which several different agencies present their services, resources, and training to better equip the officers when they respond to crisis calls .  I believe that it is a national movement but can be shaped to by the needs and resources of each local community who implements it. 

Keith

Hi Elaine,

I recently read that Cambridge, MA made their trauma informed policies available:  https://www.cambridgema.gov/-/...cementinitiative.pdf

Here is a link you may find useful.Police and Mental Health Collaboration Tool Kit - Bureau of Justice Administration.

Tucson, AZ has a Mental Health Intervention Team (MIST)

Oregon has an alternative, but they are not trained in law enforcement: https://whitebirdclinic.org/ca...n%2Dviolent%20crises.

I would recommend doing crisis intervention without police involvement.  Someone in a mental health crisis doesn't need police, sirens, lights, someone with a gun, handcuffs, etc.

Eugene, Oregon has the CAHOOTS program that has been in operation for 30 years.  They are funded through local law enforcement in Eugene and Lane County.  They do not go out with police (thankfully), but have called police in extreme situations.  They have had over 240,000 calls and only asked for police backup in 250 of them.

Additionally, Denver has a similar program (not sure of the name), and here in Sacramento, there is a newer program that is volunteer only at this point (we are trying to get the County and/or the city to fund the program so it can operate 24/7), called Mental Health (MH) First.  https://www.antipoliceterrorproject.org/mh-first-sac

Mental health should not be criminalized or resolved with incarceration.  Additionally, this often includes unhoused folks who simply need housing to be able to start addressing other issues adequately.

Some departments in Milwaukee and Wisconsin use CIT and another program that include social workers, emts, etc to assist on MH calls where/when they can....  I believe a researcher Amy Catherine Watson has a lot of information on this in WI- it's an area of study for her.

Thank you all; some really great resources you've shared.  Love this community.

Here is an article from the Philadelphia Inquirer that references a de-escalation training program used in Camden NJ and elsewhere https://fusion.inquirer.com/ne...allace-20201129.html