Bedminster PD recently completed some important training programs.

FBI Leadership Training

Corporal Virnelson successfully completed FBI-LEEDA's Supervisor Leadership Institute, Command Leadership Institute, and Executive Leadership Institute and received the FBI-LEEDA Trilogy Award. It is the mission of FBI-LEEDA to advance the science and art of law enforcement leadership and promote the exchange of information to improve law enforcement management practices through training, education, and networking among police professionals across the United States and beyond.

Crisis Intervention Training

Officer Dalton recently graduated from  CIT training. The Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) is an innovative first-responder model of police-based crisis intervention with community, behavioral healthcare, and advocacy partnerships.

The Benefits Of CIT

Not only can CIT programs bring community leaders together, they can also help keep people with mental illness out of jail and in treatment, on the road to recovery. CIT programs also:

• Give police officers more tools to do their job safely and effectively. Research shows that CIT is associated with improved officer attitude and knowledge about mental illness. In Memphis, for example, CIT resulted in an 80% reduction of officer injuries during mental health crisis calls.

• Keep law enforcement’s focus on crime. Some communities have found that CIT has reduced the time officers spend responding to a mental health call. This puts officers back into the community more quickly.

• Produce cost savings. It’s difficult to estimate exactly how much diversion programs can save communities. But incarceration is costly compared to community-based treatment. For example in Detroit an inmate with mental illness in jail costs $31,000 a year, while community-based mental health treatment costs only $10,000 a year.

We are very proud of Corporal Virnelson and Officer Dalton for continuing their education to constantly improve the service to our community.