Evaluation of CIT Components of Guardian Law Enforcement Training
- PDF / 505,221 Bytes
- 20 Pages / 595.276 x 790.866 pts Page_size
- 73 Downloads / 211 Views
Evaluation of CIT Components of Guardian Law Enforcement Training Jacqueline B. Helfgott 1
&
Beck M. Strah 2 & Loren Atherley 3 & Elizabeth Neidhart 4
# Society for Police and Criminal Psychology 2020
Abstract In 2014, the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission (WSCJTC) shifted from a paramilitary “warrior”-style training to a guardian model focused on community participation, social justice, procedural justice, and de-escalation and crisis intervention skills. The current study examines the effects of crisis intervention team (CIT) training components in the WSCJTC guardian curricula. A quasi-experimental pre-/post-survey design was employed comparing responses from a sample of 139 WSCJTC Basic Law Enforcement Academy (BLEA) recruits who completed BLEA in 2015 with two comparison groups—(1) 296 BLEA graduates who completed training prior to implementation of the guardian training who had no prior CIT training and (2) 851 BLEA graduates who completed training prior to implementation of the guardian training who had prior CIT training. Additionally, the study examined the effects of a WSCJTC’s 40-hour CIT training through a pre-/post-survey of 78 law enforcement personnel who completed the voluntary 40-hour CIT in-service training. Significant training effects were observed for the 8-hour and 40-hour CIT training programs. Results offer support for continued implementation of the 8-hour CIT training component in BLEA and the 40-hour CIT training. Implications for continued improvements to law enforcement training are discussed. Keywords Crisis intervention team . Law enforcement training . Guardian policing
Evaluation of CIT Components in Guardian-Based Police Training From the twentieth century to modern day, law enforcement cultures have largely been defined by paramilitary-“warrior”style standards and a crime control orientation (Kraska 2007; Salter 2014) in contrast to practices involving community service and social justice (Clear et al. 2010; Hafner 2003). Recently, the growing discrepancy between crime control and community policing styles has become the subject of national policy debate. Following the occurrence of nationally visible police shootings (e.g., Ferguson, MO, Staten Island, Results from this paper were presented at the International Academy of Law and Mental Health Congress, Vienna, Austria, July 15, 2015. * Jacqueline B. Helfgott [email protected] 1
Department of Criminal Justice, Seattle University, 901 12th Ave, Seattle, WA 98115, USA
2
Roger Williams University, Bristol, RI, USA
3
Seattle Police Department, Seattle, WA, USA
4
Neidhart Consulting, Seattle, WA, USA
NY, Cleveland, OH), former President Barack Obama assembled a collective of law enforcement experts from around the country called the “President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing,” to address the growing rift between the police and the populace. In 2020, following police violence that resulted in the deaths of George Floyd in Minneapolis, MN, Breonna Taylor in Louisville, KY, this national policy
Data Loading...
