County Graduates Milestone Mental Health Crisis Intervention Training Class

The Prince William County Police Department recently graduated its 50th Crisis Intervention Training, or CIT, class. The goal of the program, which trains police officers from Prince William County and the cities of Manassas and Manassas Park, the Prince William Adult Detention Center, the Prince William County Sheriff’s office, along with various state agencies, is to train officers and community partners on how to help those experiencing a behavioral health crisis and knowledge of resources available in the community.

“Obviously, we want to get better trained in de-escalation techniques, at being able to recognize signs of mental illness, and becoming familiar with and providing information about the resources available. We want to put that all into one package,” said Prince William County Police Sgt. Eric Beard, the CIT assistant program coordinator.

The Police Department has been conducting the program since 2012, when two or three classes graduated per year. In recent years, the department has graduated six or seven classes a year.

Relationships have developed across the community as the program has progressed and more and more area law enforcement officials and others have received the training.

Prince William County Community Services partners with first responder agencies to provide the CIT training.

“The collaboration between Community Services and all the law enforcement across greater Prince William started with this program,” said Heather Baxter, Behavioral Health Program Manager with the county’s Community Services department. “It has led us to be able to have other collaborations – the Marcus Alert initiative, co-responders, our entire response system in Prince William – has been because of relationships we’ve built through starting this program. I think this sets Prince William County apart from the rest of the state. Our relationships and the way we work together between mental health and the police departments has just made for an open relationship that has led to so many opportunities for us.”

Building those relationships has fostered a robust behavioral health response system across the Prince William area between law enforcement, fire and rescue, and the county’s behavioral health programs.

“The program has given us an informed response to people who are experiencing crisis,” Baxter said. “We want to give them the right response when they need it. We want our people to be knowledgeable and informed on mental health, so that when they do respond, they can help.”

In all, more than one thousand people from the various agencies have completed the 40-hour training. The county’s Police Department has trained 496 officers, with a goal of training all its officers in CIT.

“I think we’re on track to be in the 80 percentile soon,” Beard said.

Prince William County Police Officer Latrell Guy was a member of the 50th class and said he now better appreciates the hardships people face in dealing with mental illness.

“I just have a better understanding of what the person themselves might be going through and get them the help they need rather than go to a more restrictive route,” Guy said. “We need to understand what they have to live with and how we can help them get through their day. It’s something everyone should take in general to be more knowledgeable about these situations.”

Beard said he has heard positive feedback from the community about the program. People are not at their best during a crisis, and family and friends welcome the fact that officers have received the training.

“The community loves it,” Beard said. “When the officers graduate, they get a pin that signifies that they’re a CIT officer and the community recognizes that. Often when they have individuals that are in crisis, they will specifically ask for an officer that’s been trained in CIT.”

The training also includes input from people with lived experiences who share their stories during the training in hopes it will help the students gain insight into how they can best help during a crisis.

Learn about the county’s crisis intervention programs at pwcva.gov/department/community-services/crisis-intervention.