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Grosse Pointes, Harper Woods form country’s first joint Crisis Intervention TeamFree Access


Grosse Pointe Farms PSO Paul Reygaert leans in the driver’s window to talk to a distraught Detroit Police recruiter who, in this scenario, is overwhelmed with the pandemic and other life struggles. Leaning in the passenger side window is Grosse Pointe Park Officer Ronald Loosvelt. Photos by Renee Landuyt

THE GROSSE POINTES AND HARPER WOODS — In one scene, officers must convince a potentially suicidal fellow man in uniform to accept help. In another, they’re talking down a woman threatening to jump off a bridge because of a domestic dispute.

These advanced simulations, acted out by certified instructors, took place on the final day of voluntary 40-hour Crisis Intervention Training, attended by 15 officers from the Grosse Pointes and Harper Woods last week at the City of Grosse Pointe public safety building. CIT training covers mental illness, substance use, adolescent issues, trauma-informed policing, self care, verbal de-escalation and developmental disabilities, making officers more comfortable with facing these situations on the job.

With 100 percent of officers in the Grosse Pointes and Harper Woods now trained in mental health first aid, this CIT training, in which 20 percent of a department’s officers are required to be certified, is the second step to completing the One Mind Campaign through the International Association of Chiefs of Police, which focuses on training officers for interactions with individuals who have mental health conditions.

In this scenario, a woman threatens to jump off a bridge because her husband has substance abuse problems and is cheating on her. On the bridge, instructors Arnold Wicker and Andrea Smith play the roles of husband and wife. Trying to deescalate the situation are City of Grosse Pointe Detective Mike Narduzzi, City PSO Drew Prueter and Grosse Pointe Shores PSO Jeff Roybal. On the far left is Gino Villareal, CIT staff member, watching and listening to the officers’ response.

Working toward this goal, the Grosse Pointes and Harper Woods combined to form the first joint Crisis Intervention Team in the country, with 20 percent of the officers from the six departments combined now certified.

“If I’m working and I don’t have an officer that’s trained in crisis intervention, I can call the Farms, the Park or the Shores and they can send that officer over to help us and vice versa,” City of Grosse Pointe Director of Public Safety John Alcorn said. “… If we did it, just Grosse Pointe City, we have 23 people, so 20 percent of that is 4 or 5 people. We automatically have access to more people than that by doing it all together.”

Aside from the advanced training simulations toward the end of the week putting the officers’ new skills to the test, the volunteers were put into peer groups to share something they’re having a hard time with, which was intended to get officers used to talking about personal problems and understand they don’t have to hold them in. They also had a self-care portion, where a personal trainer was brought in for workouts, and tried exercises such as experiencing an auditory hallucination.

“We have them do an exercise where they use the non-dominant hand to try to trace a picture,” added Andrea L. Smith, director of workforce training and program development with Detroit Wayne Integrated Health Network, “so they can see what it’s like having a disability where you know you want to do it a certain way, but you just can’t.”

Hosted speakers also included a 36th District Court judge speaking about specialty courts, a representative of the prosecutor’s office detailing not guilty by reason of insanity cases and a psychiatrist, who provided information about warning signs to look for on pill bottles such as whether the quantity matches the count or whether the color and shape match the look on the bottle.

It’s great training,” City of Grosse Pointe Public Safety Officer Steve Mukavec said. “… It’s interesting, you get a lot of information, it’s fun at times (and) the time has gone by fast.”

With the training now complete, the officers have received a three-year certification through CIT International — the DWIHN’s program was awarded as the best CIT program in the nation this year — but will continue to have ongoing quarterly continuing education.