We see it over and over: police officers confront a person in the throes of mental illness. Some of these people may be dangerous; most are not violent, but they are confused, disturbed, and not acting rationally. Police officers are trained for a different job: detecting and preventing crime and disorder, and too often, things go terribly wrong, resulting in violence and even the death of a person with a mental illness.
There’s a new way to deal with this chronic problem: training for police officers using the Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) approach.
Master Police Officer Patricia Poloka of the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police explains more.
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