Were created by the Memphis Police Department in 1988 after one of its officers fatally shot a man with a history of mental illness and substance abuse. Subsequently, many police departments across the country have created models of that training program, based at the University of Memphis CIT Center.
Comprised of specially trained police officers, social workers or other mental health counselors, emergency department and other hospital personnel, crisis teams intervene to lessen the chances that a person with mental illness 1) experiences a worsening health crisis after law enforcement officers have been summoned in 2) harms themselves or others during potentially volatile situations 3) is subjected to police use of physical force or 4) is arrested and incarcerated.
Equips police officers with skills required to identify when a person is suffering a mental crisis; to de-escalate tensions during encounters involving persons with mental illness; and to route such persons into mental health care services, rather than a jail cell, especially when no violent crime has been committed.
Persons with mental illness are over-represented in the criminal justice system, which, observers say, is being crippled by the cost of policing and housing such people.