Our Mission:
To provide a more professional and humane response to
individuals in serious mental health crises.
Our
Houston Police Department CIT program provides officers with training on
mental illness and crisis intervention/de-escalation techniques. This
training is proven to help officers de-escalate situations involving
individuals in serious mental health crisis. The goal of the program is
to keep officers and mental health consumers safe in these encounters.
The training results in a more professional, effective and humane
response by law enforcement officers to individuals
with mental illness.
The following are significant developments regarding this training:
Texas is one of the few states in the nation to mandate
crisis intervention and de-escalation training for all
peace officers in the state (Senate Bill 1473).
The Houston Police Department has the largest CIT
program in the nation with 1250 CIT officers in
patrol (as of Dec 2010).
All Houston Police
Department cadets receive the 40-hour CIT
class and serve as CIT officers upon graduating from the
academy.
All Houston Police
Department call-takers and dispatchers receive
16 hours of CIT training. Call-takers and dispatchers
are crucial to the success of the CIT program. It is
important to educate them about the objectives of the
program and the important roles they play.
The Houston Police Department provided the
state-mandated 16-hour CIT class to all Texas police
chiefs through the Law Enforcement Management Institute
of Texas at Sam Houston State University.
The Houston Police Department has trained over 900
regional and state officers in the 40-hour CIT
curriculum and over 700 regional and state officers in
the 16-hour mandated class.
The Houston Police Department
has a Mental Health Unit that oversees the department's
multi-faceted, comprehensive strategy for responding to
individuals in serious mental health crisis. The CIT
program is the foundation of this strategy.
Click here to see the current and past issues
of
our CIT Newsletter.
The
"Bob Meadours"
Act
Click here to read
more about SB1473.
Press Release...
CSG Justice Center Announces Six Law Enforcement Agencies to become National “Learning Sites” on Improving Responses to
People with Mental Illnesses
The Council of State Governments (CSG) Justice Center, with assistance from a team of national experts and the U.S. Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), has selected
six police departments to act as national law enforcement/mental health learning sites-agencies that will help other jurisdictions across the country improve their responses to
people with mental illnesses. Selected were the Houston (TX) Police Department, Los Angeles (CA) Police Department, Madison (WI) Police Department, Portland (ME) Police Department, Salt
Lake City (UT) Police Department, and University of Florida Police Department.
The six learning sites will host site visits from interested colleagues and other local and state government officials over a two-year period, answer questions from the field, and work with
Justice Center staff to develop materials for practitioners and their community partners.
Additional information about the learning sites project, including information about how to request technical assistance from the sites, is available on the project’s website at
www.consensusproject.org/learningsites.
The Houston Police Department's Chronic Consumer
Stabilization Initiative won the International
Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) 2010
Community Policing Award.
Mr.
Todd Miller, Chair, IACP Community Policing Commitee, presented
the award to Houston Mayor Annise Parker and Houston Police
Chief Charles A. McClelland, Jr. on December 9, 2010 at Houston
City Hall.
Chronic Consumer Stabilization Initiative Finalist for International Award
The Center for Problem-Oriented Policing (POP) recognizes innovative and effective problem-oriented policing projects that have achieved measurable success in resolving recurring specific crime, disorder or public safety problems faced by police and the community. Each year, the center accepts applications from law enforcement agencies around the world for the prestigious Herman Goldstein Award for Excellence in
Problem-Oriented Policing. The award is presented at the center’s annual international conference.
There were 46 entries from around the world for this year’s award. Judges narrowed the list to 14 semifinalists, then six finalists, including a team from the United Kingdom.
The Houston Police Department’s Chronic Consumer
Stabilization Initiative was one of the six finalist
programs.
The
Honorable Jan Krocker, of Harris County's 184th
Criminal Court, received the Judicial Advocate of the Year
Award at the First Annual CIT International Conference
held in San Antonio, Texas in June 2010. Judge Krocker received the award for her leadership role in Harris County
in dealing with the large number of criminal defendants with
mental illness who continually cycle in and out of the criminal
justice system.
The Harris County Jail averages 2,500 inmates
a day on psychotropic medications making it the largest mental
health facility in the state. To address this issue, a Felony
Mental Health Court was unanimously approved in 2009.
Judge Krocker is leading this effort and was designated
by the Criminal District Court Judges to preside over it.
Judge Krocker will volunteer her time to preside over
the Felony Mental Health Court in addition to handling her
regular docket. Funding is being sought for the court.
The mission of the Simmons Foundation is "To invest in the community so lives can be improved by helping people help themselves." The Simmons Foundation expresses its values by funding
organizations that help those whose resources are limited, so they can lead productive, fulfilling and responsible lives with dignity and respect. The mission and values of Houston's Chronic
Consumer Stabilization Initiative (CCSI) parallel those of the Simmons Foundation and thus won the $25,000 grant.
A New Approach
There are two primary approaches to administering a CIT program.
The first approach, the Memphis Model, is when you have a
completely voluntary program. The goal is to train a certain
percentage of your patrol force as CIT officers, usually 25%,
with all volunteers. The second approach is to train all patrol
personnel. There are arguments for and against each approach.
Houston has adopted a hybrid approach involving veteran officers
and cadets. The program is voluntary for veterans. However, all
cadets receive the 40-hour CIT curriculum and serve as CIT
officers upon graduating from the academy.
The Crisis Intervention Response Team (CIRT) pairs a Houston CIT
officer with a licensed professional mental health counselor from
the Mental Health Mental Retardation Authority (MHMRA) of Harris
County. The following are the objectives of this collaborative,
unique program:
Respond to the most serious CIT calls
Act as a resource to CIT officers and patrol supervisors
Conduct pro-active and follow-up investigations on the chronic mentally ill
Assist investigative divisions with mentally ill suspects/complainants
Check by on all SWAT calls as a resource
CIRT Officer Eric Chimney with his
clinician partner Mike Erickson
The program was piloted for six months in 2008. Qualitative and
quantitative date collected during the pilot proved it to be an
overwhelmingly successful program. Questionnaires were sent to all
officers and supervisors requesting a CIRT unit during the pilot.
All responses were positive. Several stated the units were
"extremely beneficial."
The Hostage Negotiation Team found CIRT to be very helpful. Many of
the suspects on SWAT calls are mentally ill. The clinician on the
CIRT unit has the capability to immediately access the consumer's
records if the consumer is a client of MHMRA of Harris County. This
information is extremely beneficial to the negotiators.
The program was implemented as a full-time program in 2009.
Currently the department has 10 full-time CIRT units.
As with criminal activity, a small percentage of
individuals with mental illness account for the majority
of police calls-for-service. These are the individuals
who continually go into serious mental health crises
requiring repeated police intervention. Rather than
continuing this reactionary cycle, the Chronic Consumer
Stabilization Initiative (CCSI) takes a community
policing, pro-active, collaborative approach to help
these consumers from going into crisis, thus reducing
police intervention.
The City of Houston Health Department provides funding
to the Mental Health Mental Retardation Authority (MHMRA)
of Harris County. With this funding, MHMRA hires two
mental health clinicians. The Houston Police
Department's Mental Health Unit identifies the 30 mental
health consumers the department responds to most
frequently. Each clinician works with 15 of these
consumers with the goal of using all available resources
to reduce subsequent crises.
The clinicians access outpatient mental health
treatment, housing, primary health care, substance abuse
treatment, and social security benefits for the
consumers assigned to them. The clinicians work closely
with the NeuroPsychiatric (NPC), Mobile Crisis Outreach
Team, Crisis Stabilization Unit, Crisis Residential
Unit, MHMRA Helpline, and the Houston Police Department.
The program was piloted for six months in 2009. For the
six months prior to the pilot, the 30 individuals
identified by the MHU for placement in the program
accounted for 396 police calls-for-service, 183
emergency detention orders, and 213 offense reports.
During the pilot, these same individuals accounted for
122 calls-for-service (69% change), 39 emergency
detention orders (78% change), and 83 offense reports
(61% change).
The Ray C. Fish Foundation was established in 1957.
Under the terms of its Charter, grants are limited to
qualified charitable purposes for the support,
operation, establishment, or advancement of any
exclusively educational, scientific or other charitable
activity in the State of Texas. Federal tax laws
prohibit private foundations from making loans and gifts
to individuals.
Over 350 Texas institutions have received support from
the Foundation. The diverse group includes universities
and colleges, hospitals, medical research programs,
children's aid groups, museums, schools, libraries,
parks, and many others.
Education and health care are the Foundation's primary
focus. Gifts were relatively small in its early years
until the Foundation was fully funded in 1966. The first
major gift of five million dollars was the seed money
for Houston's Texas Heart Institute.
Many education and health programs have benefited from
the legacy of its Founder and his desire to help people
develop their talents to better themselves and the
community in which they live.
