LITITZ BOROUGH – Three additional LBPD officers have completed training in Crisis Intervention. In Lancaster County, the Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) is a collaborative effort of local agencies, law enforcement, and the mental health community to ensure thorough and consistent training that mental health crisis situations are responded to with respect for the person and proper consideration of mental illness.

CIT explained:

• CIT is police-based Crisis Intervention Team training.
• CIT is community collaboration between mental health professionals, law enforcement, family, and consumer advocates.
• CIT teams are pre-booking, jail diversionary program designed to improve outcomes of police interactions with individuals with mental illness.
• CIT is ideal for patrol officers who are the first line responders involving individuals in a mental health crisis.
• CIT provides 40 hours of voluntary, specialized training to first line responders and law enforcement officers.

The benefits of CIT are decreased consumer injury rates, decreased officer injury rates, decreased number of arrests of individuals with mental illness, connects individuals in mental health crisis to appropriate mental health services, and decreased use-of-force occurrences.

The LBPD anticipates that every sworn officer of the LBPD will complete CIT training by the end of 2021.

Click here for more information about CIT in Lancaster County.

Media contact: Media@LititzPD.org