Many police departments across the USA have implemented some form of crisis intervention training. This training is modeled after Memphis’ 40 h Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) Training, a core component of their flagship CIT Program, and is designed, in part, to teach officers about the nature of mental illness as well as effective strategies for deescalating potentially volatile interactions. Some police departments have departed from the Memphis Model, where participation and completion of the training is voluntary, and have begun mandating that their officers complete the 40 h crisis intervention training. This study investigates patrol officers’ perceptions regarding this training mandate as well as their views on the utility of the training. The qualitative data were collected from a large, Midwestern, municipal police department and were triangulated to include the following: (1) 227 h of participant observation, (2) semi-structured interviews with police patrol officers who had completed the training (N = 32); and (3) interviews with executive command staff, CIT coordinators, Crisis Response Team officers, and telecommunications personnel (N = 13). The study finds that most participating patrol officers believe the 40 h crisis intervention training should be mandatory training for all officers, and every participating patrol officer expressed that the crisis intervention training has both specific and general utility.

美国各地的许多警察部门都实施了某种形式的危机干预培训。该培训以孟菲斯的 40 小时危机干预小组 (CIT) 培训为蓝本，这是其旗舰 CIT 计划的核心组成部分，旨在向警官传授精神疾病的性质以及降低潜在风险的有效策略不稳定的相互作用。一些警察部门已经脱离了孟菲斯模式，在这种模式下，参与和完成培训是自愿的，并开始要求他们的警官完成 40 小时危机干预培训。本研究调查了巡逻人员对这项培训任务的看法以及他们对培训效用的看法。定性数据是从一个大型的中西部地区收集的，N  = 32); (3) 与执行指挥人员、CIT 协调员、危机应对小组官员和电信人员的面谈（N  = 13）。研究发现，大多数参与的巡警认为40小时危机干预培训应该是所有警员的强制性培训，每位参与的巡警都表示危机干预培训既有具体的效用，也有普遍的效用。