Police officer perceptions of the impact of Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) programs

Understanding the role of service providers, land use, and resident characteristics on the occurrence of mental health crisis calls to the police

“…There have been major strides in the development of programs to improve police response to a mental health crisis, such as crisis intervention teams (CIT) and the co‐responder model. These programs are primarily aimed at de‐escalation training, building collaborative partnerships with mental health agencies, and diverting individuals from the criminal justice system (Bonfine, Ritter, & Munetz, ; Reuland, ; Ritter, Teller, Munetz, & Bonfine, ; Teller, Munetz, Gil, & Ritter, ; Watson et al, ), and thus are predominantly reactive—responding to crises and then following up with high‐risk individuals in an effort to facilitate treatment and prevent future crises. Despite a recent focus by police on crime hot spots, police efforts largely fail to consider the utility of spatial concentration of mental health calls for targeted, prevention efforts.…”

A qualitative description of community service, business, and organization perspectives on mental illness and inclusion

“…Regarding the latter point, there would seem to be some promise in developing specialized response teams among police officers with the specific mandate to respond to mental health calls. In contrast with the findings of this study, officers in such programs may be more confident in their ability to respond to such calls and feel that their work is important and effective (Bonfine, Ritter & Munetz, 2014). This would align with the benefit to people with SMI with fewer unnecessarily ending up in criminal justice systems and, possibly, fewer tragic outcomes with ineffective engagement leading to the use of deadly force.…”

Crisis response to persons with mental illness: understanding responder capacity

“…The shift to contemporary policing models, that stress community involvement and focus on immediate and collaborative problem solving, places police officers in a position for which they have not been adequately trained or prepared. Research indicates that police have about the same level of knowledge regarding MI, including similar negative understandings, as the general public (Bonfine, Ritter, & Munetz, 2014). Although basic police training does include components on working with individuals who have a MI, this training is neither consistent nor comprehensive (Cotton & Coleman, 2010).…”

“…This specialized instruction, which is generally delivered in a lecture format, ranges from one to twenty four hours with the average involving less than ten hours (Stanyon et al, 2014). Despite this, police in the role of first responders are tasked with triaging at the crisis scene and quickly determining if the cause of an individual's behavior is psychiatric or criminal (Bonfine et al, 2014). Police report a lack of knowledge, skill, and understanding of MI that compromises their confidence in being able to achieve this (Adelman, 2003).…”

“…Public perceptions that reflect this belief influence both the report to police as well as response by them (Bonfine et al, 2014). The requirement that the response and subsequent problem solving be swift and the lack of available collateral information elevates the risk of inaccurate assessment and compromises the understanding of other factors that may be relevant (Parent, 2011).…”