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The Memphis Police Department has pioneered a new program to better treat individuals experiencing mental health crises. Memphis started the Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) after police shot and killed a man nearly three decades ago. The man, who suffered from mental illness, had lunged at police with a knife. The program uses verbal techniques to de-escalate situations, which will keep both police officers and citizens safe. Memphis currently has 274 CIT officers on its police force of almost 2,100. “You have to have compassion,” said Major Vincent Beasly, who worked as a CIT officer for eight years. “And you have to understand that it’s not the individual himself. It’s something that’s going on.” Randolph Dupont, a psychiatrist who helped found CIT, said people in crisis often act out of fear and an untrained officer could interpret such behavior as defiance or non-compliance. Dupont said the program trains police to understand the root cause for why an individual might be non-compliant — in many cases mental illness — and get them the help they need. As a result of CIT, Memphis has seen a significant decrease in the number of people being sent to jail. Of the more than 14,000 911 calls that CIT officers responded to last year, the vast majority ended without a person being detained and around 4,000 were taken to mental health facilities, Beasly said. The “Memphis Model” has since spread to more than 3,000 of the nation’s 18,000 police departments. CIT officer Chris Ross said the potential to help people is why he works in the program. “If we get to the point where we’re making a difference, we won’t have to lock so many people up,” he said.Vocab
precinct
— a district of a city or town as defined for police purposes
de-escalation
— decrease in intensity, magnitude
Warm up questions
- What is mental illness?
- What are some of the challenges people with mental illness face?
- Should police officers be trained to deal with situations involving mental illness?
Critical thinking questions
- How could these crisis intervention policing tactics be applied in other police departments?
- What kind of benefits can come about from having officers interact with people experiencing mental illness regularly?
- Does sending someone with mental health issues to regular jail help their situation? Why or why not?
