By: Nicole Acker

Officers Jason Poirier and Brent Hughes are Menlo Park’s most recent police officers to complete a 40 hour Crisis Intervention Training (CIT) program. Fifteen Menlo Park police officers are currently trained in CIT and all officers will be trained by 2018. CIT is a concept based on a successful and well-validated program that began in Memphis, Tennessee. CIT is a collaboration between law enforcement and county mental health services that train law enforcement officers to de-escalate potentially violent situations and ensure the safety and diversion of the mental health consumer to a treatment center. Nationally, and here in the Bay Area, there has been a significant rise of untreated and at risk consumers trying to manage their symptoms without professional care. 

CIT officers are trained to respond to calls for service involving individuals who are possibly suffering from a mental illness, developmentally disabled and individuals in crisis. The basic goals of the program are to improve officer safety, the safety of the consumers (individuals suffering from a mental illness), and to redirect consumers from the judicial system to the health care system via referrals when appropriate. CIT includes identification of the more common types of mental illness, skills for de-escalation of potentially violent situations, assessment of medication information, specifics on suicide prevention and a mental health overview.