Q&A
Deployment of CIT-trained officers in mental health calls
2:00:52
·
151 sec
Council Member Yusef Salaam inquires about how the NYPD triages emergency calls to ensure officers with Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) training or relevant specialized training are deployed to mental health calls. Chief of Training Olufunmilola Obe responds to the question.
- The department does not currently have a system to specifically dispatch CIT-trained officers to mental health calls
- The priority is to respond quickly to emergencies, which doesn't allow time to pair specific officers based on CIT training
- While having CIT-trained officers present is ideal, it's not always possible due to the volume of calls and the need for rapid response
Yusef Salaam
2:00:52
I'm thinking about current News related or newsworthy incidents, like the police shooting on the train station last week and also when Rosario in this particular instance, how does the department triage emergency calls, their offices, who have received CRT training or relevant specialized training, and how they deployed in mental health calls.
Olufunmilola Obe
2:01:29
So you're asking if we use CIT training, do we have officers who are CIT trained?
2:01:33
Do we dispatch them to this call?
Joseph Rosenberg
2:01:35
Well well, are
Ebony Washington
2:01:37
they done?
Yusef Salaam
2:01:39
I'm I'm assuming and, you know, I don't wanna go through the whole statement of what an assumption is.
2:01:44
But I'm assuming that of the officers of this of the the fact that we have CIT training, or is every officer trained in that?
2:01:57
And as it related to, like, the Win Rosario incident incident, as an example, because it appeared that The officers may not have been trained in CIT.
Olufunmilola Obe
2:02:09
So I can't speak to that specific incident.
2:02:11
I could just tell you that there's a very tragic incidents.
2:02:16
And any loss of life is tragic.
2:02:18
So I could speak to how we train into escalation and use use of force specifically, but I cannot speak to that particular incident.
2:02:27
What we see on ground is not I I think I get a little bit from what you're asking is, do we have CIT officers assigned to these jobs when the EDP jobs come along?
2:02:38
And we're dealing with volume.
2:02:39
You heard what Chief Washington talked about.
2:02:42
And honestly, we just want to get our offices out there to help as best as we possibly can, deescalate situations as best as we can.
2:02:50
I don't know that we have enough time to pair offices to say, hey, who's the IT qualified and who's not.
2:02:56
So or maybe
Mercedes Narcisse
2:02:59
I don't know if we can
Olufunmilola Obe
2:03:01
I I know that we don't do that?
2:03:03
And I would assume also that chief Washington's Josh Schoppe does not take the time to, you know, we just wanna get them out.
2:03:10
There's a 911 call.
2:03:11
There's an emergency.
2:03:12
They just to get our offices out there.
2:03:14
We would like to have CIT officers present.
2:03:16
Yes.
2:03:17
But I don't know that we do that tailored approach of having a CIT officer present in every situation.
