Crisis Intervention Team (CIT): What It Is and Whether It Works

A crisis intervention team is a group of patrol officers, usually volunteers^[2], who receive specialized training in responding to people in a mental health crisis, backed by agreements with local mental health services. The University of Memphis CIT Center, which maintains the model, describes it as a first-responder program of police-based crisis intervention with community, health care and advocacy partnerships, known as the "Memphis Model"^[1].

Its two stated goals are to improve officer and consumer safety and to redirect people with mental illness from the judicial system to the health care system^[1]. CIT has become one of the dominant U.S. models for police encounters with people in crisis, and a 2019 review counted 2,700 programs^[2].

The model began in Memphis, Tennessee, after police fatally shot a young man with a history of mental illness during a 1987 call^[6]. The city's mayor then brought together advocates from the National Alliance on Mental Illness, police, mental health professionals, university leaders, hospital administrators and church officials to design a different response^[6].

CIT is one piece of a wider crisis system. For how often crises happen and who experiences them, see the mental health crisis statistics page and the analysis of mental health emergency room visits.

A crisis intervention team handles calls in which someone appears to be in a psychiatric, substance-related or developmental crisis. The trained officer's job is to de-escalate, assess, and decide among resolving the situation on scene, referring or transporting the person to mental health services, or arrest^[3].

The Memphis core elements describe a program, not just a class. They call for trained dispatchers, a mental health receiving facility with specialized emergency care, written policies that maximize officer discretion, and inter-agency agreements^[1].

Dispatch and the receiving facility

Dispatchers are meant to recognize a crisis call, ask the questions that help the responding officer, and send a CIT officer. The core elements recommend at least 8 to 16 hours of CIT training for call-takers and dispatchers^[1].

The core elements treat turnaround time as a priority: hand-off at a mental health facility should take no longer than booking someone into jail^[1].

How long is CIT training?

The standard officer course is 40 hours^[1]. It combines lectures on mental illness, site visits to mental health facilities, direct interaction with people who live with mental illness, and scenario-based de-escalation practice^[1].

SAMHSA's 2025 guidelines name Crisis Response Intervention Training (CRIT) alongside CIT as a 40-hour program for officers who respond to behavioral health crises^[5]. Some agencies train only volunteers, while others make the course recommended or mandatory for all officers^[2].

The most detailed public record of CIT call outcomes comes from Colorado, where trained officers filed standardized forms on 6,353 crisis incidents between 2002 and 2011^[4]. In that dataset, more than 95% of incidents ended without arrest, and 50.8% ended with transport to a treatment facility^[4].

Of all incidents, 40.5% involved a 72-hour mental health hold^[4]. Officers used force in 5.0% of incidents, and a SWAT team was called in 0.82%^[4].

Injuries were recorded in 13.0% of incidents, but 12.6% of incidents involved injuries that occurred before police contact^[4]. A suicide threat or attempt raised the odds of transport to treatment and lowered the odds of transport to jail^[4].

The Colorado study tracked only CIT-handled incidents, so it describes what CIT encounters look like rather than proving they turn out better than standard police responses^[4]. Published studies of small programs that follow the Memphis model closely are often positive, while larger multi-site analyses are mixed^[2].

The evidence is strongest for what CIT does to officers and weakest for the outcomes it was created to change. A 2019 review in the Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law found that studies generally support officer-level benefits, such as satisfaction and a self-perceived reduction in use of force^[2]. The same review found little peer-reviewed evidence of benefit on objective measures of arrests, officer injury, citizen injury or use of force^[2].

Arrests and referrals

A multi-department study surveyed 180 officers (91 CIT-trained, 89 not) in six departments about 1,063 encounters^[3]. CIT training generally did not predict level of force, but trained officers were more likely to report verbal negotiation as the highest force used (OR 2.00)^[3]. Trained officers were more likely to refer or transport (OR 1.70) and less likely to arrest (OR 0.47)^[3].

A Chicago study of 112 patrol officers in four police districts found that CIT-certified officers directed a larger share of people with mental illness to mental health services, with no immediate effect on arrest^[7]. The CIT effect was largest among officers who viewed mental health services positively and who personally knew someone with mental illness^[7].

Use of force and injuries

A 2016 meta-analysis by Taheri screened 820 records and found only 8 studies fit to evaluate arrests, officer injury or use of force^[2]. None of those studies showed a benefit of CIT on use of force, and official arrest statistics showed no consistent effect, although self-reported data pointed to fewer arrests^[2].

Low-quality data may hide real effects. State and federal databases undercount officer-involved shooting deaths by 30% to 50%, and police use of deadly force is rare enough that small studies can miss a true difference^[2]. The 2019 review also reported that about 1,000 people were fatally shot by U.S. police in 2018, with people with mental illness involved in about 25% of those deaths^[2].

Comparisons across models are inconclusive. A systematic review by Kane and colleagues found no clear superiority among CIT, liaison and diversion, and street triage on arrests or days in detention, though it rated CIT best for reducing re-offending and improving mental health outcomes^[2]. The overlap with jail and prison populations is covered in incarceration and mental health statistics.

CIT is one of three common U.S. crisis response models, and local names vary. "CRT" is not a standardized term: it usually refers to a crisis response team or co-response team, and in the Indianapolis evaluation below it meant a police and mental health co-response team^[8]. Co-response models pair specially trained officers or other first responders, such as fire or EMS, with behavioral health professionals^[5].

SAMHSA's 2025 guidelines note that some co-responder teams are built on existing CIT programs and that co-response is especially common in rural areas^[5]. They describe law enforcement on mobile teams as something to avoid where possible, accepted when it is the only feasible way to keep 24/7 coverage with quick response^[5].

Co-response teams

An Indianapolis pilot in 2017 compared 313 people who received a co-response team with 315 who received a standard police response after a 911 call^[8]. The co-response group had lower odds of immediate arrest (OR 0.48) but no difference in jail bookings at 6 or 12 months^[8].

Mobile crisis teams without police

Under SAMHSA's 2025 guidelines, a mobile crisis team includes at least two people, one of them a licensed or credentialed clinician who takes part in the assessment^[5]. The guidelines state that the response should occur without law enforcement unless special circumstances warrant their presence^[5].

Denver's STAR program sends a mental health clinician and a paramedic to selected 911 calls^[9]. A 2022 quasi-experimental study found STAR responded to 748 incidents in its 6-month pilot and reduced reports of targeted low-level crimes, such as trespassing and public disorder, by 34%, with no detectable effect on more serious crimes^[9].

There is no national crisis intervention team phone number. In communities with a CIT program, a 911 call-taker trained under the Memphis model identifies a mental health crisis and dispatches a CIT officer^[1].

The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline was relaunched as the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline in July 2022, and it routes callers to a local crisis center^[10]. SAMHSA states that most people who contact 988 are helped by the counselor without involvement of 911, and that a mobile crisis team visit can follow where one exists^[10].

SAMHSA also notes that mobile crisis teams and stabilization centers do not yet exist in all parts of the country^[10]. Call and text volumes are tracked in the 988 hotline statistics analysis, and the wider workforce gap is covered under mental health workforce shortage.