The Corvallis Police recently finished a new crisis training program to help prepare officers for handling situations with people experiencing behavioral, intellectual, and developmental conditions that can sometimes escalate unnecessarily.
They were one of only three agencies in the country chosen for the U.S. Justice Department’s Crisis Response and Intervention Training (CRIT), and included Albany Police and Benton County Sheriff’s Office.
“There’s not a day that goes by where I don’t have an opportunity to use these tools and techniques,” Benton County Sheriff’s Deputy Colin Tominey said in a press release, about a training scenario that featured a series of interactions with an adult with autism.
Curriculum included topics from mental health, trauma, and substance use disorders to the latest information from subject-matter experts and the complexities involved in such cases.
“In law enforcement, we have two choices when responding to a person experiencing a crisis: take them to the hospital if they are sick or a danger to themselves, or take them to jail if they are committing a crime,” Tominey said. “We need additional resources, like a drop-in crisis center and support programs, to give us that viable third option.”
The Arc of Benton County and Benton County Health Department partnered on this program. The pilot will be refined after data is collected from participating departments. Pittsburgh, PA and Rapid City, SD, were the other two cities in the pilot program.
The training is a 40-hour intensive based on the Memphis Model Crisis Intervention Team training and developed by University of Cincinnati researchers and facilitated by Policy Research Associates. Modules ranged from perceptions and attitudes to disruptive and impulse-control disorders in youth to suicide, legal considerations, community resources, and personality disorders, as well as other scenarios.
By Peggy Perdue
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