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Crisis Intervention Team

Program Contact
Sgt. Robert Hipple
Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department
Office:  (317) 327-6553
email

The Metropolitan Police Department's Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) program helps officers handle the needs of people who are out of control due to mental illness and who, as a result, act in some manner that is disruptive to the community.  The program is the result of a partnership among IMPD, the Midtown Community Health Center, and the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI).  Working with local judges, physicians, mental health practitioners, family members, and consumers, the partnership seeks to:

  1. Reduce the number of people in the criminal justice system who are suffering from mental illness
  2. Decrease the potential for injury or death to people with mental illness as well as to law enforcement officers and other members of the community
  3. Increase the number of people with mental illness who receive mental health treatment

One goal of the program is to provide 40 hours of training to at least 20% of all street officers, thus providing a core group of officers who are readily available to respond to incidents involving possible mental illness.  The training seeks to improve awareness of: 

  1. Mental health issues
  2. Medications
  3. Addictions
  4. Suicide
  5. Legal processes
  6. Available resources
  7. De-escalation techniques
  8. Procedures for diversion from criminal charges via Immediate Detention

Officers who have completed the CIT training wear a round, CIT pin on their uniforms to help identify them as an officer who is trained to deal with mental health issues. 

The CIT program has trained more than 200 IMPD officers.  In addition, training has been provided to officers from the Airport Police, Butler University Police, Meridian Hills Police, Noblesville Police, Lafayette Police, Lawrence Police, and Warren Township School Police.  Metropolitan Emergency Communications Agency and Wayne Township Medical personnel have also been trained.

Eli Lilly and Company, Indiana Protection and Advocacy Services, and NAMI-Indianapolis all have provided financial support to the CIT program.  The Wayne Township Fire Department provides a training facility for the program at its headquarters.