San Francisco Mental Health and SFPD Crisis Intervention Team to Honor Outstanding Performance and Skills in Crisis Intervention 19-076

The Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) Working Group is proud to announce that the fifth annual CIT Awards Ceremony will be held Thursday, June 13, 2019 from 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM at the Scottish Rite Masonic Center Auditorium, 2850 19th Avenue, San Francisco. The awards ceremony will recognize SFPD officers who have utilized CIT tactics and de-escalation techniques to safely and effectively resolve incidents involving individuals who are in crisis; four San Francisco Department of Public Health Crisis Intervention Specialists; San Francisco Emergency Medical Services paramedics; the Department of Emergency Management and the civilian chairperson of the CIT Working Group.

The CIT Working Group is a partnership between community members, mental health advocates, health service providers and police officers working together to provide cutting-edge training for law enforcement officers. The goal of CIT is to train and deploy officers with the skills necessary to effectively address crisis situations in the field. The San Francisco Police Department currently has more than 1,042 members certified in the 40 hour CIT course.  

The training is designed to teach officers how to de-escalate incidents involving individuals in mental health crisis when time, officer safety, and terrain permit. The CIT curriculum addresses topics that include mental health disorders, medical issues, psychotropic drugs and side effects, juvenile mental health, geriatric mental health, family perspective by the National Alliance on Mental Illness, suicide and suicide intervention, dual diagnosis, vicarious trauma and conflict resolution, suicide by cop, post-traumatic stress disorder signs and symptoms, veteran trauma, and implicit bias.  

Please join us Thursday to learn more about the CIT program and to honor the outstanding efforts of our officers, public health workers and first responders to de-escalate crisis situations and enable peaceful resolutions.  

For additional information about the CIT program, please visit https://www.sanfranciscopolice.org/your-sfpd/explore-department/crisis-intervention-team-cit.

To view a video about the San Francisco Police Department’s CIT working group, please use this link: https://vimeo.com/276174398.