The Shelby County Sheriff’s Office held a graduation ceremony for the newest members of the Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) on September 23 at the SCSO Training Academy. This particular program, designed for corrections officers, included 15 corrections deputies from the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office, seven members of the Shelby County Division of Corrections, and one correction officer from Bartlett Police Department. Sheriff Floyd Bonner, Jr., Chief Jailer Kirk Fields, and Sharon Gartrell of NAMI Memphis spoke during the ceremony and thanked the officers for their dedication and service.
The CIT program is a community partnership of law enforcement, mental health and addiction professionals, people who live with mental illness and/or addiction disorders, their families, and other advocates. It is an innovative, first-responder model of police-based crisis intervention training to help people with mental disorders and/or addictions access medical treatment rather than place them in the criminal justice system due to illness-related behaviors. It promotes officer safety and the safety of the individual in crisis.
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