This month’s speaker was Sgt. Daniel Nelson from Seattle Police Department’s Crisis Intervention Team (CIT). It’s a team of 4 officers who follow up on incidents involving people in crisis, such as suicide attempts, mental health issues, some domestic violence, etc. There are thousands of these 911 calls a year, so the team can’t handle them all, but they do help a great deal with the cases that get to their desks. For example, they may work with the person’s mental health case worker to figure out the best way to approach these individuals on the street. Or they may refer people to social services. Or they may work with other services to decide on the best intervention likely to succeed in getting the individual to stop the behaviors.
In addition to this team, 60% of SPD officers have taken voluntary 40 hour training for crisis intervention certification. And all officers are required to take 8 hours of training each year in crisis intervention.
If you see someone in crisis, you may call 911. If you want to tell SPD about a person you see around who seems to be in constant crisis, call our Community Police Team officer David Gordon, 206-684-0799, or David.Gordon@seattle.gov and he will follow up.
All the minutes from the NPAC meeting are here.
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