With the increasing concern surrounding mental health and drug addiction throughout Owensboro and Daviess County, it has become even more critical that police officers and first responders understand how to react in these situations. Although officers must ensure that they enforce the law when they are on scene, the way they approach individuals in various scenarios can often set the stage for the corresponding events that take place after that person is released from police custody.
Crisis intervention training (CIT) is a 40-hour in-service class offered by the state of Kentucky to all officers. According to Public Information Officer Andy Boggess, even though the course is not required by the state, it is required by the Owensboro Police Department, and the Daviess County Sheriff’s Department participates as well.
“The basis of CIT is to get a better understanding of what somebody’s going through. We deal with people in all stages of life — we’re not necessarily dealing with someone after they’ve committed a crime.” Boggess said. “For someone that has a legitimate mental illness, jail may very well not be the best place for them. If they’ve committed a serious enough crime, they’re going to go to jail. You have to identify what route would be the best to get them the help they need.”
Boggess added that there was a lot of overlap between mental illness, homelessness and drug abuse. He said so often individuals are “masking another issue that’s going on,” such as job or home loss, and may be self-medicating.
“When we deal with a person in crisis we fill out a form an eCrisis form,” Boggess said. “The last three years we’ve averaged over 800 a year. That number has risen in the last five years. It’s not necessarily that the numbers have gone up, as much as we have gotten better at identifying those situations.”
Although the training was developed out of the Department of Criminal Justice in Richmond, Ky., it is administered locally at least once a year at River Valley Behavioral Health.
Dr. RonSonlyn Clark, senior director of substance abuse treatment and prevention and one of the liaisons for CIT, said the mental health clinicians at River Valley have been hosting this cooperative program with the Department of Justice for the last 10 years.
“I have been a CIT instructor for every class we’ve had and love it,” Clark said. “I really believe in this program.”
Clark said area experts at River Valley help educate officers on how to handle major mental illnesses, co-occurring disorders (such as mental illness and substance abuse together), children in crisis, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), suicide and substance abuse.
OPD officer Adam Johnston is one of the CIT trainers for the week-long course.
“It is a law enforcement based class — officer safety is a priority,” Johnston said. “Officers learn how to identify someone going through a crisis or deal with someone with a mental illness so everyone can go home safe at the end of the night.”
“[A set of] angel wings are given to the students when they graduate — it’s a universal identifier across the state that that officer is trained,” Johnston said. “The wings have been recognized when we arrive on scene. It instantly provides that feeling of calm.”
Johnston said when officers go out into the field they are taught what questions to ask and what to look for so they may apply the skills they’ve learned to any call for service. The training itself culminates into officers spending a day in various role-playing scenarios in order to put into practice what they have been taught.
“The officers use this training multiple times a day,” Johnston said. “Some people have a stereotype or immediate prejudice about somebody with a mental illness. I think it helps get rid of that stereotype. One in four adults have some type of mental illness. It’s tearing down those walls and bridging the gaps to work together better for the common goal of getting people healthy.”
