Local police officers honored after completing specialized training
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MAHONING COUNTY, Ohio - Twenty-three police officers in Mahoning County graduated from the The Mahoning County Mental Health and Recovery Board and NAMI Mahoning Valley's 'Crisis Intervention Training (CIT)' Friday afternoon.
The program is an intense 40-hour, five day training session that equips officers with essential skills on how to de-escalate and handle mental health crises in their communities. Those can involve everything from one on one encounters, to domestic violence cases where emotions run high and can turn dangerous in an instant.
"The training is important because officers are in all different types of situations. From domestic violence to hostage situations, and this training shows them all the different aspects," Duane Piccirilli, Executive Director of the Mahoning County Mental Health and Recovery Board said.
The training is in such high demand they have had to turn officers away in recent years.
"The moment we open the training up, the classes fill within two hours," Piccirilli said.
According to the board there is at least one CIT trained officer in every police department in the county. The training is offered twice a year.