NORFOLK, Va. — One call may save lives right here in Hampton Roads. De-escalation training for police when they respond to mental health crisis services will soon be statewide.
Certain calls officers respond to require them to be quick on their feet especially when handling a mental health crisis, and when someone's life is in danger.
"The job of a law enforcement officer is to get to a scene or crisis and make things better, not worse" said Rick James, a Retired Norfolk Police Detective.
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Rick says officers spend hours training for all types of scenarios, and that's where CIT comes in, also known as Crisis Intervention Team. It allows people to approach situations and use different methods to calm people down. While CIT is designed to help officers effectively respond to mental health illness calls, sometimes situations take a turn.
Several Newport News officers are on administrative leave after they shot an killed a man last week after he was reportedly suffering from a mental health crisis. Over 2,000 police departments nationwide have been trained in CIT, but Rick believes having this universal plan will speak volumes to having a standard when it comes to training and making sure every police department gets the same de-escalation training.
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"Times are different, we now have school shootings, we have children bringing assault riffles to school, there's terrorist attacks. We also have people that suffer from mental illnesses happening so police officers have to be trained to deal with those issues" Rick added.
Law enforcement leaders tell News 3 all of our 7 cities teach training differently.
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