Police crisis intervention team

A Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) is a police mental health collaborative program found in North America.

When people living with the illness became psychotic or had poor quality of life in communities, the police became the go to resource for helping.

In September 1987, Memphis, TN, police responded to a 911 call involving a man with a history of mental illness who was cutting himself with a knife and threatening suicide.

This new alliance was established to develop a more intelligent, understandable, and safe approach to mental health crisis events.

The Memphis CIT program has achieved remarkable success, in large part because it has remained a true community partnership.

Medics later testified that his broken ribs were most likely due to the emergency trauma care (CPR) he received.

[citation needed] Chasse's death prompted an outcry in the news media, in response to which Portland mayor Tom Potter instituted a CIT program.

Sergeant William Pettit went to the Memphis Police Department to understand a Crisis Intervention Team model in 1988.

[9] Albuquerque was hit again with community tragedies involving law enforcement interaction with people living with a mental illness that sparked an investigation by the Department of Justice (DOJ) in 2014.

The finding letter also stated, "A significant amount of the force we reviewed was used against persons with mental illness and in crisis.

The findings letter and outcry from the community ended in a court appointed settlement agreement with the Department of Justice.

[13] The expansion of the MCIT unit was recommended in a subsequent coroner's inquest into police shootings of suspects with edged weapons.

[19] It is claimed that following the implementation of the COAST program, arrest rates for persons in crisis fell from 66% to 25%[20] and on average, police officers saved 580 hours per year.

The AOT provides support to patients with mental health issues as they leave detention in hospital or jail.