Q&A
Budget and potential benefits of mandatory CIT training
2:03:26
·
73 sec
Council Member Linda Lee inquires about the budget for Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) training and the potential benefits of making it mandatory for all officers. Chief of Training Olufunmilola Obe responds to these questions.
- The budget for CIT training is approximately $2 million
- CIT training is considered helpful and is already mandatory for all new recruits since October 2023
- The department continues to expand class sizes and attendance for CIT training
- Many precinct commanders and officers express a desire for more CIT training
Linda Lee
2:03:26
Sorry.
2:03:26
Can I just ask a real quick follow-up to that?
2:03:30
So my understanding was also during COVID.
2:03:32
I I understand that the CIT trainings were sort of decreased in terms of the budget.
2:03:36
So can you speak to whether that's fully brought back up and also Do you think that it would be men it would help decrease some of the numbers of instances where forces used and improve overall safety for the public as well as the offers if if CIT was mandatory.
2:03:55
Because I can tell you that of all the c o's that I have and the captains and the precincts, Pearl North, and South that I work with, they all actually want more of this training.
2:04:04
And I think it would benefit everyone if we made that mandatory So do you think that would help number 1?
2:04:11
And number 2, how much would it cost do you think?
Olufunmilola Obe
2:04:14
So just to speak to the budget, I think about $2,000,000.
2:04:18
We've mentioned this the last time.
2:04:21
It is absolutely it's helpful.
2:04:23
It's mandatory.
2:04:25
And, again, mandatory for all our recruits.
2:04:27
They go through it.
2:04:29
All every single recruit since October 2023 has been trained in CIT, and we continue to have the classes, as I mentioned, have expanded attendance.
2:04:37
So we're happy with it, and we'll continue to push.
