Resolution to honor Va. Beach Crisis Intervention Team

Feb. 19--A resolution filed this week in the Virginia House of Delegates honors the Virginia Beach Crisis Intervention Team, which works to help people experiencing mental health emergencies.

The legislation (HJ851) is by Virginia Beach Dels. Bill DeSteph, Glenn Davis and Barry Knight, all Republicans.

The Crisis Intervention Team is a collaboration between the city's police department, sheriff's office, human services and others, including mental health groups and the Virginia Beach Psychiatric Center. It was established in 2008 and includes providing specialty training for all of the city's police officers on how to handle incidents involving the mentally ill, said Officer Tonya Borman, a police spokeswoman.

The goal is to de-escalate situations and, when possible, help those people find treatment rather than jailing them for minor offenses.

The initiative started in Memphis in 1988 and has since spread throughout the country, including every city in South Hampton Roads.

"[I]n Virginia Beach, the CIT program has become a successful community partnership that allows people with mental illness to be directed away from the judicial system to the health care system by well-trained and caring law-enforcement officers and emergency responders," the resolution says.

It goes on to say that the General Assembly commends the program "for its work to help people in mental health emergencies seek appropriate care as an alternative to punitive incarceration."

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