Crisis Intervention Team training is a national program designed to assist police officers encountering individuals living with mental illness. CIT is a community-based collaborative between individuals, families, the behavioral health system and mental health treatment providers, law enforcement agencies, advocacy organization and the medical community. CIT Program is designed to help police personnel who respond to incidents involving individuals with a mental health crisis. Officers and dispatchers are frequently first-line responders to people experiencing a mental health emergency. CIT Programs:

• Provide police officers skills to identify and interact with individuals living with mental illness and/or addictions
• Redirect individuals from judicial system to health care system
• Reduce stigma/change perception of individuals living with mental illness
• Reduce use of force during crisis events, which reduces injuries to officers and clients
• Create more timely and appropriate intervention with improved treatment outcomes for client
• Improve relationships between officers and members of the community they serve
• Create a safe, caring and respectful environment for the officer, client and treatment provider

The ADAMHS Board has provided CIT training to the Cuyahoga County community for more than 20 years.

CIT Peer Review

The Criminal Justice Coordinating Center of Excellence (CJ/CCOE) works with CIT Coordinators across Ohio to strengthen our collective understanding of the core elements and emerging best practices within CIT. One way to collect these emerging best practices is through a Peer Review Process. The peer review is a voluntary, collegial process built on identifying and integrating the best elements of CIT programs.

The Peer Review Process consists of four phases: A Self-Assessment conducted by the county under review, a Desk Audit that provides detail on the program and training curriculum, a Site Visit by a team of reviewers, and a written report summarizing the review team’s observations.

As part of the Consent Decree between the City of Cleveland and the Department of Justice, the ADAMHS Board of Cuyahoga County and the Cleveland Division of Police participated in the Peer Review Process that was concluded in April 2015. A Written Report and Review Highlights are available.

CIT Policies and Training Curriculum for Cleveland Division of Police

As part of the settlement agreement and in partnership with MHRAC, the following curriculum was approved by the Monitoring Team, the presiding Judge, Solomon Oliver, Jr., and the Department of Justice.

• CIT Definition Policy
• CIT Program Policy
• CIT Response Policy

The Cleveland Division of Police and the Training Sub-committee of the MHRAC have worked to review, revise and make recommendations to CIT Training Curriculum for the Cleveland Division of Police. Below are documents pertaining to the Training Sub-Committee's proposed final draft curriculum for the 8-hour Crisis Training for all Cleveland Police Officers.