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Officers from Morehouse Parish and West Carroll Parish are taking part in a week-long session of Crisis Intervention Training.
“Morehouse Parish has more trained than any other sheriff’s office in the state,” Dr. Mkay Bonner, a CIT trainer, said. At the end of this session, approximately 90 percent of the street officers at the Morehouse Parish Sheriff’s Office will be trained, in addition to the dispatchers and some jail employees.
“The goal is 20 percent,” Bonner said, explaining that the MPSO has far exceeded the expectations of the Memphis Model, which is considered the gold standard in CIT.
“They’re very supportive; they’re committed to this,” Bonner said.
Lucille Kennedy of the MPSO is on the Northeast Delta CIT board, which covers the 12 parish area of Region 8. MPSO Investigator Lee Cleveland and Deputy Dara To are also on the board that consists of law enforcement representation, two consumers, representatives of the Office of Mental Health and the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI).
Since they formed, Kennedy said, board members have had two opportunities to go to a national CIT conference, allowing CIT professionals from the United States and Canada to share ideas and experiences.
“We’re very proud of what we’ve done,” Kennedy said. “I’m very proud of the way we’ve trained our officers.”
Kennedy said Sheriff Mike Tubbs has supported the training since it was first offered to the MPSO and has continued being a strong supporter.
Chief Criminal Deputy Brian Shoemaker said hid department started seeing a difference after the first class.
“It’s come in handy,” Shoemaker said.
Shoemaker explained that that the techniques have been useful on patrol, and he’s trying to get more of the jail employees trained to use CIT techniques.
“It’s all about getting them back to a rational state, and then they [the officers] can deal with them better,” Kennedy said. “When we are faced with consumers, we need to know the proper techniques to deal with them.”
In CIT terminology, a person who is mentally ill, or otherwise in crisis, is a “consumer.” Bonner said the Memphis Model is designed for people who are mentally ill, but she acknowledged that not everyone in a crisis is mentally ill.
“The techniques can be used in every single aspect of law enforcement,” Bonner said.
Dispatchers are offered an eight hour course in CIT, but other law enforcement officers go through a 40 hour training session.
Officers from Morehouse Parish and West Carroll Parish are taking part in a week-long session of Crisis Intervention Training.
“Morehouse Parish has more trained than any other sheriff’s office in the state,” Dr. Mkay Bonner, a CIT trainer, said. At the end of this session, approximately 90 percent of the street officers at the Morehouse Parish Sheriff’s Office will be trained, in addition to the dispatchers and some jail employees.
“The goal is 20 percent,” Bonner said, explaining that the MPSO has far exceeded the expectations of the Memphis Model, which is considered the gold standard in CIT.
“They’re very supportive; they’re committed to this,” Bonner said.
Lucille Kennedy of the MPSO is on the Northeast Delta CIT board, which covers the 12 parish area of Region 8. MPSO Investigator Lee Cleveland and Deputy Dara To are also on the board that consists of law enforcement representation, two consumers, representatives of the Office of Mental Health and the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI).
Since they formed, Kennedy said, board members have had two opportunities to go to a national CIT conference, allowing CIT professionals from the United States and Canada to share ideas and experiences.
“We’re very proud of what we’ve done,” Kennedy said. “I’m very proud of the way we’ve trained our officers.”
Kennedy said Sheriff Mike Tubbs has supported the training since it was first offered to the MPSO and has continued being a strong supporter.
Chief Criminal Deputy Brian Shoemaker said hid department started seeing a difference after the first class.
“It’s come in handy,” Shoemaker said.
Shoemaker explained that that the techniques have been useful on patrol, and he’s trying to get more of the jail employees trained to use CIT techniques.
“It’s all about getting them back to a rational state, and then they [the officers] can deal with them better,” Kennedy said. “When we are faced with consumers, we need to know the proper techniques to deal with them.”
In CIT terminology, a person who is mentally ill, or otherwise in crisis, is a “consumer.” Bonner said the Memphis Model is designed for people who are mentally ill, but she acknowledged that not everyone in a crisis is mentally ill.
“The techniques can be used in every single aspect of law enforcement,” Bonner said.
Dispatchers are offered an eight hour course in CIT, but other law enforcement officers go through a 40 hour training session.
Bonner explained that the training shows officers what mental illnesses look like on the street.
“It’s different from a book or doctor’s office.” said Bonner, a licensed industrial organizational psychologist.
The officers learn to find red flags that signal mental illness and obtain the tools needed to de-escalate the situation, which can range from using a softer tone of voice to talking about medication or other personal needs or interests.
“We do a lot of roleplay and have to use techniques to work through it,” Bonner said.
According to Bonner, approximately half of the 40-hour training time is spent in roleplay. She noted that a co-trainer refers to CIT techniques as “the lost art of the police talking to people.”
Kennedy said that in addition to the role playing, consumers come in and talk to the class about personal experiences, and the class traveled to Monroe Tuesday to meet with different consumer groups.
Bonner said that Northeast Delta CIT has 250 officers trained in 12 parishes. In January, two MPSO officers, Chris Balsamo and Jeff Philley, co-won officer of the year for the entire region, and Morehouse Parish is the only place that has hosted satellite sessions multiple times, normally the sessions are held in West Monroe.
Kennedy said 14 MPSO officers are in the current class; scholarships offered through the board help offset the cost of taking deputies off the street for training and scheduling a replacement for the week.
After this class graduates, the MPSO will have approximately 45 officers trained in CIT techniques.
“We’ve come a long way,” Kennedy said.
The class’s graduation is scheduled for 2 p.m. Friday, April 17 at the Visitor Center.
