Police train for helping mentally ill people

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – Multiple police agencies around Kentucky gathered at the Bowling Green Police Department throughout the week for Crisis Intervention Training.

CIT trained officers are more equipped on how to handle a situation when dealing with a person in mental health crisis or with mental disabilities.

The officers are taught how to best use their training to calm an individual.

In training, the officers were able to role play today and act out a situation they might face and were critiqued on how they handled the situation.

Denise Spratt, executive director of the Kentucky CIT Program, said, “when someone is having a crisis, they need to call the police and ask specifically for a CIT trained officer.”

This training deals with some tough topics such as depression, schizophrenia, suicide and other issues.

“Everyone matters, just because you have a mental illness, it’s the same as if you have any sort of other physical ailment, you need help, you need assistance, and that’s what we are here for, to get that for you,” says BGPD Officer Jess Rager.

Rager says, 98% of Bowling Green Police Officers are now CIT trained.