Eight law enforcement officials from around the Pine Belt were honored at a reception ceremony Thursday for their involvement in the Pine Belt Crisis Intervention Team, a program designed to help officers understand the nuances of mental illness and recognize when someone is in crisis, enabling them to respond appropriately to the situation.
Officers from Forrest, Lamar, Perry and Marion counties were honored at the reception, which was held Thursday at Jackie Dole Sherrill Community Center in downtown Hattiesburg. The CIT program, an initiative of Pine Belt Mental Health, is aimed at training officers to de-escalate psychiatric crises in order to provide individuals with treatment rather than incarceration.
“We started CIT back in 2016 in Jones County, and since then we’ve expanded to nine counties across southern Mississippi,” CIT Coordinator Linda Foley said. “Today, we’re honoring the western half of the Pine Belt catchment area. Those are officers that have put forth a lot of effort – it’s a lot of work, it’s a lot of sacrifice, being called out on longer calls than usual and explaining to your shift commander why you’ve been out so long.
“They’re genuine in caring for individuals that are living with behavioral health problems. So we’re honoring them today, and we’re honoring those that have really gone beyond the call of duty.”
Officers recognized included:
• Charles Sims of the Petal Police Department: Most CIT Contacts and Most CIT De-escalations on Scene
• La’Shaunda Buckhalter of Hattiesburg Police Department: Most CIT Diversions
• Mike Byrd of the Lamar County Sheriff’s Office: Most CIT Contacts, Most CIT Diversions
• Chance Curry and Chipe Estes of the Lamar County Sheriff’s Office: Most CIT De-escalations on Scene
• Tyler Creel of the Marion County Sheriff’s Office: Most CIT Contacts
• Joseph Parker of the Perry County Sheriff’s Office: Most CIT Contacts
• William Herrington of the Perry County Sheriff’s Office: Most CIT De-escalations on Scene
Shortly after the CIT program was implemented in 2016, Jones County officers were soon joined by agencies such as the Lamar County Sheriff’s Office, Hattiesburg Police Department and Ellisville Police Department.
“One of the first major bills that I handled when I was a legislator was the CIT bill, and I can tell you that as someone who didn’t have any idea when I started handling that bill, to see this now is very rewarding,” Mayor Toby Barker said. “I do believe that collaboration works, between counties and cities, between law enforcement agencies, between law enforcement and mental health.
“I think it makes us a safer region. One good thing about the Greater Hattiesburg area is that we do collaborate, we do come together, we do participate and make our community safer.”
CIT training consists of a week-long, 40-hour course in which officers are trained to react to situations of mental illness, as well as connect those individuals to the proper treatment. Some of the main tenets of the program include decreasing officer injury rates, increasing public awareness of mental health issues to decrease stigma, and emphasizing treatment – rather than incarceration – of people with mental illness.
“Pine Belt plays a pivotal role in CIT, as we have a mobile crisis team that can co-respond, or answer questions via telephone or in person,” Foley said. “And they follow up on every CIT contact to make sure that they’re engaged in treatment.
“CIT’s goal is to lower the incarceration rate of individuals living with mental illness or substance abuse problems and getting them into treatment. As an example, in Jones County, where we started … we cut the average number of individuals with mental illness in the jail from an average of 60 to five per month.”
