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Helpful Links
City of Houston
National Institute
of Mental Health
Houston Police
Department
HPD Museum
Website
Houston Police
Officers Union
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The Texas Commission on Law Enforcement has mandated that all cadets receive 24 hours of de-escalation/crisis intervention training. This mandate took effect January 2005. Officer Frank Webb, of the Houston Police Department, was the discipline chair of the committee that developed that curriculum. The Houston Police Department exceeds this mandate by 16 hours providing its cadets with 40 hours of CIT training. The cadets cover all of the learning objectives of the 40-hour class for veteran CIT officers. The cadets graduate as CIT officers. |
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Emergency communications personnel (call takers and dispatchers) are crucial to the success of a CIT program. Call takers have to code appropriate calls as CIT calls and dispatchers have to dispatch those calls to the CIT trained officers. The Houston Police Department provides all call takers with two hours of training about the CIT program and instruction regarding the calls that should be coded as CIT calls. Dispatchers are provided with three hours of training involving the objectives of the program and liability issues of not dispatching CIT officers. |
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Increasingly, correctional facilities are providing crisis intervention training for their employees. The Harris County Jail, for example, has started a CIT program for correctional officers. The Houston Police Department has short-term jails that are holding facilities until the prisoners can be transported to the Harris County jail system. Houston Police Department jailers currently receive two hours and medical personnel receive three hours of training. The training for jailers focuses on de-escalation techniques and a concise explanation of mental illness. The training for medical personnel focuses on the causes of psychosis, a "hearing voices" exercise, a discussion about policy and procedure, and a documentary film depicting mentally ill inmates in the Ohio prison system. |
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The CIT Practicum is an eight-hour elective in-service class available to CIT officers. The CIT officers choosing to attend ride with the Mobile Crisis Outreach Team (MCOT) for an eight-hour shift. This class provides the officers with a unique opportunity to see how these mental health professionals interact with and respond to individuals in serious mental health crises. The officers are able to ask any questions they have. It helps strengthen the relationship between Houston Police Department CIT officers and MCOT members. And, MCOT members enjoy having a police officer along! MCOT team members respond to potentially dangerous situations all over Harris County. |
 MCOT day shift members in front of their very busy daily assignment board: (back row left to right) Dr. DeJarnette, Annabel Elsner, Barbara Edmond, Keyshia Ashford, and Vernon Patterson; (front row left to right) Tamika Burns, Fabiola Briones, and Elizabeth Finch. |
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All Houston Police Department CIT officers must attend an eight-hour refresher class each year to maintain their status as a CIT officer. The class differs each year depending on the needs identified the previous year and on the suggestions and feedback solicited from CIT officers. This year's class begins with a program update by a CIT administrative staff member, a presentation by the captain over Harris County Jail operations, a presentation by a department staff psychologist on PTSD, a policy and procedure update, a presentation by a member of the Mobile Crisis Outreach Team, and the showing of a documentary film by Frontline called "The New Asylums." Training modules in past classes include: advanced role plays, a presentation by the Houston Fire Department's Emergency Medical Services, a presentation on suicide by Crisis Intervention of Houston, a presentation on dementia by doctors from Baylor College of Medicine, and a presentation by Adult Protective Services. |
 Lieutenant Pat Daugherty (left) of the Houston Police Department's Jail Division and Captain Greg Summerlin of the Harris County Jail address the CIT Refresher class |
 Officers participating in the "hearing voices" psychosis exercise |
Texas is the only state in the nation to mandate
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Houston has a hybrid CIT program. It is comprised of veteran patrol officers and cadets. The program is voluntary for the veteran officers and mandatory for the cadets. The training is the same for both groups. The class is taught collaboratively by members of the Houston Police Department and mental health professionals from Houston/Harris County. The major topics of instruction are: schizophrenia, psychosis, bipolar disorder, suicide, active listening, de-escalation techniques, the Texas Mental Health Code, substance abuse, and officer safety. An important aspect of the training is role-playing. Students put into practice the techniques taught in the classroom. Each role-play is critiqued from an officer safety and crisis response perspective. Another important aspect of the training is a presentation by a mental health consumer who talks about his experiences with mental illness. This person puts a human face on this devastating illness. Houston's CIT program is based on the Memphis, Tennessee model. |
 Houston CIT Officer Priscilla Chillis talks a suicidal man off of a freeway overpass |
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A second 40-hour class provided by the Houston
Police Department is a train-the-trainer. This class is directed to
those officers who are becoming CIT trainers. Houston's CIT
curriculum is based on the Memphis, Tennessee model. |
 LEMIT Building at Sam Houston State University |
Texas has over 1,200 police chiefs. All chiefs receive 40 hours of training every two years. This training, Texas Chief of Police Leadership Series, is provided by the Bill Blackwood Law Enforcement Management Institute of Texas (LEMIT) at Sam Houston State University. The state mandated CIT training was part of the 2006-2007 training cycle. Because of the statewide leadership role of the Houston Police Department regarding CIT training, Senior Officer Frank Webb was asked to present this material. |
