Group aims to prepare area police for crises

By Tasha Kates

Published: May 25, 2008

As the state is preparing to strengthen its mental health guidelines, a local program is hoping to increase the number of law enforcement officers who can defuse crisis situations.

The Thomas Jefferson Area Crisis Intervention Team program is asking local police departments to have 55 percent of their staffs undergo CIT training within the next fiscal year. By July, police departments from Charlottesville, Albemarle and the University of Virginia are expected to have 40 percent of their officers trained.

Thomas L. von Hemert, the CIT coordinator, said the program teaches officers how to better calm a person during a crisis.

By defusing a situation, officers protect themselves and the other person, UVa Police Chief Michael A. Gibson said.

“It reduces those opportunities in the past that may have resulted in a physical altercation,” Gibson said. “It helps us to communicate effectively with someone who is in crisis and get them to voluntarily go along with a program or get a certain type of treatment.”

In 2005, the Public Advisory Committee of the local Public Defender’s Office started discussing the idea of a CIT program. The nation’s first such program was developed in 1988 in Memphis, Tenn., after public outrage followed a police shooting in which a mentally ill man was killed.

According to the National Institute of Mental Health, about 6 percent of the population, or one in 17 people, suffers from a serious mental illness.

The 40-hour CIT training covers everything from the psychological effects of war on veterans to adolescent issues. Patrol officers, correctional officers and dispatchers try role-playing exercises to see how their newfound approach works in a controlled setting.

Jenny Oliver, executive director of Mental Health America (formerly Association) of Charlottesville Albemarle, said the training helps police lessen the anxiety of people they respond to.

“The policemen are taught about the kinds of cues, body language and tone of voice,” Oliver said. “They need to ask open questions and give feedback. It calms people so that they can develop a coherent story about what has happened to them.”

Officials aren’t able to say for certain what effect the program has had on the criminal justice system, although Gibson said some of his CIT-trained officers have told him the training has paid off. Von Hemert said the program’s next goal is to start looking at data to see if the number of emergency custody orders has been affected. Earlier this month, a group of UVa engineering students presented a customized Excel spreadsheet meant to track the program’s data.

The Charlottesville area’s CIT program is funded by a matching grant from the state’s Department of Criminal Justice Services, said von Hemert, who also acts as the criminal justice planner for the Thomas Jefferson Area Community Criminal Justice Board. The program received about $170,000 in 2007 and about $168,000 in 2008, although von Hemert said local agencies have to provide 25 percent of the total amount. The money funds von Hemert’s position, consultants to help with CIT training, conferences and supplies.

Each year, the CIT program has to apply for another year of funding under the four-year grant. Von Hemert said he is hopeful he will hear next month that the CIT program will receive another year of funding.