Assessing law enforcement officer skills in Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) research: developing and implementing standardized scenarios

Amy C Watson; Elisabeth Jackson; En Fu; Ron Bruno; Erin Comartin; Don Kamin; Leah G Pope; Eduardo Vega; Michael T Compton

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1463462

Assessing law enforcement officer skills in Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) research: developing and implementing standardized scenarios

Front Psychol. 2024 Dec 17:15:1463462. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1463462. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Amy C Watson¹, Elisabeth Jackson², En Fu², Ron Bruno³, Erin Comartin¹, Don Kamin⁴, Leah G Pope^{2

5}, Eduardo Vega⁶, Michael T Compton²

Affiliations

¹ School of Social Work, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, United States.
² Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, NY, United States.
³ Crisis Response Programs and Training, Inc., Salt Lake City, UT, United States.
⁴ Institute for Police, Mental Health & Community Collaboration at Coordinated Care Services, Inc., Rochester, NY, United States.
⁵ New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, NY, United States.
⁶ Humannovations, Pasadena, CA, United States.

Abstract

This paper outlines the development of standardized scenarios used to assess the efficacy of Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) training in a randomized, controlled trial. The objective was to create scenarios that accurately simulate mental health crisis situations for law enforcement officers, ensuring that each scenario tests specific CIT skills relevant to real-world encounters. Our process involved building an interdisciplinary team and drawing from the knowledge and experience of professionals in law enforcement, mental health, and performance arts to design a set of scenarios that are both realistic and challenging. The scenarios were developed to represent mental health crises that officers frequently encounter, such as mania, psychosis with agitation, and depression with suicidality. Each scenario requires officers to demonstrate CIT-specific skills such as verbal de-escalation, empathy, and critical decision-making. Our structured approach to developing these scenarios provides a replicable model for future studies that aim to assess the real-world effectiveness of mental health training for law enforcement as well as other professional groups.

Keywords: Crisis Intervention Team; law enforcement; mental health crisis; police; standardized scenarios.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare that financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This publication was supported by National Institute of Mental Health grant R01 MH128500 (“A Randomized, Controlled Trial of Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) Mental Health Training for Police Officers”) to the first and the last authors (Co-Principal Investigators). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institute of Mental Health or the National Institutes of Health.