ARLINGTON, Va. — As more law enforcement officers across Northern Virginia are trained to deescalate situations and better handle responses to calls related to people facing mental health crises, Loudoun County is set to open its new Crisis Intervention Team Assessment Center this week.
The Crisis Intervention Team Assessment Center, housed in the county’s Shenandoah Building in Leesburg, is set to come online Thursday. Loudoun County deputies will be able to take people they encounter with mental health needs to the center for assessment and stabilization, reducing trips to the county jail or the emergency room.
The center will be open 16 hours a day, from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. In addition to providing more services for those in crisis, the center is also expected to put deputies back out on patrol more quickly than waiting for commitment paperwork at the hospital or filing charges for an arrest would typically take.
The sheriff’s office says more than 170 deputies have been trained in crisis intervention techniques over the last few years, along with officers from Leesburg, Purcellville and the airports authority.
Other departments across the area have been participating in similar training.
In Alexandria, Police Chief Earl Cook says he hopes to have his officers trained in de-escalation techniques, recognition of mental health issues and special considerations regarding use of force by the end of next year.
“Most of my department will be probably in ’16 completely trained, and we work — as a matter of fact I have a meeting this afternoon — with the mental health department to talk further about how do we divert these individuals away from the jail cells and into appropriate mental health facilities and programs that will help them in ways other than enforcement,” Cook says.
There are several assessment centers in Northern Virginia like the one opening in Loudoun County. And a number of jurisdictions, such as Fairfax County, have begun taking a closer look at programs that divert the mentally ill away from jail by working not just with police but with fire and rescue departments.
Arlington County Police Chief Jay Farr says 54 percent of his officers have gone through CIT training, and that the goal is to get to 100 percent.
Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring announced Tuesday that the commonwealth would review training modules for new officers and offer training seminars for veteran officers that would focus on bias awareness, professionalism, use of force, de-escalation and impartial policing.
The Loudoun County assessment center is funded for two years through a state grant. The county hopes it will be such a success that more funding will be available in the future. Employees with the county Department of Mental Health, Substance Abuse and Development Services and sheriff’s deputies will staff the center.
