GREAT FALLS — The Cascade County Sheriff's Office is bringing back Crisis Intervention Training, known as CIT, following a multi-year pause due to decreased funding and the pandemic. The renewed program is a partnership between the Sheriff’s Office and Great Falls Police Department, aimed at responding to mental health crises with care—focusing on de-escalation and personalized support, not just law enforcement.
“Crisis intervention team is what it is - people out there in our community suffering from a mental health crisis. We go with kind of a team approach and meet them where they are, and hopefully we divert them from going into jail,” said Sheriff Jesse Slaughter.
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“Basically the week-long training provides officers, EMS, counselors with tools to be able to utilize when dealing with somebody in mental health crisis,” explained GFPD Patrol Captain Doug Otto.
Trainees work alongside mental health professionals, practicing communication and de-escalation skills to improve outcomes on the street.
“It used to be back in time where the only way to be able to manage these was probably incarceration, which is definitely the wrong piece of it. That's not helping the individual work through that mental health crisis,” Otto added.
So far, four Great Falls Police officers are in the program, with more set to participate in the next class. The goal is for every patrol officer to be CIT trained, although each session means fewer officers available on daily patrol while training is underway.
“When we show up with all the badges and guns and tools, it can often make a person in crisis in a worse situation rather than a better situation. And we recognize that, and we want to see the best outcomes for all the people in our community,” Slaughter said.
CIT is intended to connect people in crisis with the appropriate help and reduce unnecessary incarceration—making encounters safer and more effective for everyone involved.
“So we're going to try to get as many as we can through this to get them trained up and understand how important it is to be able to work through all of these things,” Otto said.
