The Zion Times

By: Sachet A. Carter | The Zion Times
A distraught veteran sits inside his vehicle with a firearm tucked beneath his chin. His marriage has fallen apart, he’s lost his job, and he’s threatening to take his own life. Two law enforcement officers are tasked with approaching him, knowing that every word, movement and decision could influence what happens next.

Do they approach the vehicle or keep their distance? What do they say to a man who believes he has nothing left to live for? How do they convince him to put down the weapon without escalating an already dangerous situation?

Fortunately, the firearm isn’t real, the veteran is an actor and the officers are participating in a training exercise where mistakes become opportunities to learn rather than potentially deadly consequences.

Welcome to the Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) Academy, where law enforcement officers learn to navigate some of the most challenging situations they may encounter in the field, often involving individuals experiencing mental illness, suicidal thoughts or other behavioral health emergencies.

From Oct. 5-9, law enforcement officers, corrections personnel, emergency dispatchers and mental health professionals from across southern Utah gathered at the Heritage Center in Cedar City for five days of intensive classroom instruction, firsthand experiences and simulated emergencies designed to strengthen their ability to recognize, respond to and de-escalate mental health crises.

UNDERSTANDING THE PERSON BEHIND THE CRISIS

The academy brought together law enforcement officers, corrections personnel, emergency dispatchers and mental health professionals from across southern Utah. Attendees came from the Cedar City, Hurricane City and Kanab City police departments; the Iron, Washington and Sevier county jails; Cedar Communications Center (Cedar Dispatch); Southern Utah University’s Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS); and the Mobile Crisis Outreach Team (MCOT).

Although their responsibilities varied, participants shared a common objective: learning how to recognize and respond to individuals experiencing mental health crises before those encounters escalate into potentially dangerous confrontations.

Throughout the week, participants received instruction on clinical and personality disorders, civil laws and liability, children’s issues, developmental disabilities, psychotropic medications, suicide assessment, post-traumatic stress disorder, substance abuse and co-occurring disorders, nonpsychiatric behaviors and crisis intervention procedures. The curriculum also addressed emergency mental health intervention and the resources available to individuals experiencing psychiatric crises.

The training emphasized de-escalation techniques intended to help officers recognize when a person may be experiencing a psychiatric crisis rather than deliberately refusing to cooperate or being under the influence of mind altering substances. Instructors focused on communication, officer safety and the importance of assessing the circumstances before determining whether law enforcement action or mental health intervention is appropriate.

One of the intervention strategies taught through CIT is the ACT method — achieve contact, clarify issues and take constructive action. Officers are taught to establish communication, identify factors contributing to a person’s distress and determine an appropriate response. The method incorporates active listening, paraphrasing, recognizing emotional “hooks” and “triggers,” and acknowledging a person’s emotions without necessarily agreeing with their perceptions or beliefs.

Officers learned the five R’s of crisis communication: reassuring, respectful, reliable, relatively simple and resonating calmness. These principles emphasize clear, straightforward communication to reduce confusion and establish trust, particularly when an individual is overwhelmed or struggling to process information. Rather than repeatedly issuing commands, officers are taught to listen, allow time for responses and adjust their approach to the circumstances.

Safety remained a critical component of the academy, with participants learning the DBEAT model which stands for “distance, backup, empathy, awareness and time.” The model emphasizes maintaining a safe distance, recognizing when additional assistance is needed and allowing time for de-escalation when circumstances permit. Participants were taught to monitor body language, hand movements, eye contact and physical distance while remaining alert to potential threats to themselves and others.

The academy went beyond presentations and classroom discussions. Its curriculum included behavioral health facility visits, opportunities to hear directly from individuals familiar with the mental health system and exercises designed to challenge participants’ understanding of what people experiencing psychiatric symptoms may be going through.

Among those experiences was Thursday morning’s Voices Simulation, an exercise that placed participants in situations where even ordinary tasks became more complicated.

WHEN THE VOICES WON’T STOP

Remembering a handful of objects scattered across a table sounds simple enough. So does listening to a short story, taking a witness statement or writing down information from a dispatch call. But what happens when unfamiliar voices are constantly interrupting your thoughts, competing for your attention and making it difficult to concentrate?

For participants attending Thursday’s CIT Academy, those distractions became part of the assignment.

Divided into groups of six, participants rotated through four stations while wearing headsets that continuously played recorded voices. The simulation was designed to illustrate some of the challenges associated with auditory hallucinations, a symptom that can occur with certain psychiatric disorders.

At the first station, participants gathered around a table covered with miscellaneous objects, including a bullet, a packet of Kool-Aid and a playing card. They were allowed one minute to study the items before an instructor covered them with a towel. With the voices continuing to play through their headsets, participants were tasked with writing down everything they remembered seeing, along with three identifying details about each object.

The second station tested listening comprehension. Participants listened as an instructor read a story aloud while the recorded voices competed for their attention. When the story ended, they had to write down what they remembered, but the voices continued even after the instructor stopped speaking, leaving them to reconstruct the information amid the distractions.

At the third station, the exercise shifted directly into the world of law enforcement. Participants paired off, with one portraying a witness reporting a crime and the other acting as the officer responsible for taking the report. Both wore headsets playing the simulated voices as the witness attempted to communicate what had happened and the officer worked to document the information. Once the exercise was complete, they switched roles, allowing each participant to experience the difficulties of both communicating information and attempting to accurately receive it while distracted by the auditory hallucinations.

The fourth and final station involved a simulated dispatch call. Participants were tasked with listening to the incoming call and simultaneously documenting the information while recorded voices continued playing through their headsets, testing their ability to listen, concentrate and accurately record details amid the constant distractions.

Each assignment involved skills that law enforcement officers routinely use on duty: observing details, remembering information, interviewing witnesses, processing dispatch calls and preparing reports. The simulation introduced an obstacle that could interfere with any of those responsibilities, offering participants a different perspective on what someone experiencing auditory hallucinations might face during an encounter with police.

Although wearing a headset cannot fully replicate the experience of living with schizophrenia or another psychiatric disorder, the exercise demonstrated how competing auditory experiences can complicate concentration and communication. Someone who appears distracted, struggles to answer questions or repeatedly loses track of a conversation may be contending with symptoms that aren’t immediately apparent to the responding officer.

By Thursday afternoon, the focus shifted toward intervention strategies and preparation for the following day’s practical exercises, where officers would be challenged to apply what they had learned throughout the week.

FIVE SCENARIOS. NO SIMPLE ANSWERS.

By 8 a.m. Friday, officers traded classroom discussions for a series of simulated mental health emergencies, where role players portrayed individuals experiencing a range of mental health crises. 

In one scenario, Cedar City Police Chief Darin Adams played an overwhelmed father struggling with his autistic teenage son, who was extremely agitated and throwing books across the room at school.

In another room, The Zion Times (TZT) was included in another scenario, playing the role of a woman experiencing paranoid delusions, convinced that hidden cameras were monitoring her movements in part of an elaborate pornography operation. 

Then there was the suicidal veteran, sitting inside his vehicle with a firearm tucked beneath his chin. For the responding officers, the exercise required careful consideration of their positioning, communication, the potential threat posed by the weapon and whether their actions might influence the man’s willingness to accept help.

Another scenario involved a barefoot, free-spirited homeless woman living in the park with a wheelchair and a shopping cart filled with an assortment of unusual belongings, including a tree branch shaped like a utensil that she casually brushed her hair with. The woman had no interest in conventional housing or assistance and insisted she wanted to live in the forest with the people that lived inside her head and had instructed her to go live in the forest.

Each scenario presented a different set of circumstances, but all required officers to look beyond the behavior immediately in front of them. A person experiencing paranoia may genuinely believe they are being watched or threatened, while someone with a developmental disability may struggle to process instructions, particularly during an already overwhelming situation. An individual threatening suicide may need someone willing to listen before they are prepared to accept assistance.

Officers had to consider the underlying circumstances, recognize potential dangers, respect legal boundaries and determine the most appropriate response while communicating with someone who frightened, confused or emotionally overwhelmed.

Throughout each scenario, an evaluator, often a senior law enforcement officer, observed the interaction alongside a therapist intern and one of the program directors. Following the exercises, evaluators reviewed the officers’ responses, discussing effective techniques, missed opportunities and decisions that might have changed the outcome. The discussions also addressed whether the circumstances met the legal criteria for an involuntary mental health hold, commonly referred to as a “pink slip,” and whether any constitutional rights may have been violated. The evaluations encouraged participants to examine not only what they did, but why they did it and how a different approach might have influenced the encounter.

The academy offered something real-world policing rarely does: an opportunity to encounter difficult situations, receive constructive criticism and identify ways to improve before facing similar circumstances on the street.

FROM FEELING HELPLESS TO LEADING THE WAY

For Cedar City Police Chief Darin Adams, the importance of crisis intervention training dates back more than two decades, long before he became chief or helped coordinate the program in southern Utah.

With a background in nursing and emergency medical services, Adams was familiar with caring for people in distress. Yet as a police officer, he encountered individuals experiencing mental health crises that left him uncertain about how best to help them.

“I had calls for service where I interacted with those and I just felt helpless,” Adams recalled during an interview with TZT. “I was like, I don’t know how to deal with this.”

In 2004, when an opportunity arose to attend CIT training in St. George, Adams decided to participate. Five years later, in 2009, he became Cedar City’s first regional CIT law enforcement coordinator, working alongside the program’s mental health coordinator to help facilitate crisis intervention training throughout the region.

Since then, the program has included personnel from law enforcement, corrections, emergency dispatch and emergency medical services throughout southern Utah. Adams said the broader goal is to establish a consistent approach to crisis intervention, regardless of where someone encounters law enforcement.

“We’re really trying to unify agencies and mental health authorities across the state so that for consumers that leave and go somewhere else, they can count on the fact that CIT looks the same in Cache County as it does in San Juan County,” Adams explained.

The CIT terminology also reflects that approach. Individuals who receive mental health services are commonly referred to as “consumers,” a term Adams said emphasizes their place in the community rather than defining them by an illness or an encounter with law enforcement.

“They’re not victims, right? They’re not patients, they’re citizens,” he said.

That distinction is important to Adams, who believes officers must recognize when someone needs assistance and when police involvement is legally justified. Not every mental health emergency involves a crime, and responding officers must consider whether their intervention is appropriate under the circumstances.

Adams said those decisions become especially delicate when officers respond to someone threatening suicide. Suicide itself is not a criminal offense, he explained, and a forceful police response may sometimes increase the danger rather than resolve it. He expressed concern about the possibility of officers unintentionally provoking a suicidal individual into a confrontation that ends in deadly force.

The challenge, he said, is recognizing when to intervene, how to do so safely and whether the circumstances call for law enforcement action or assistance from mental health professionals.

A recent incident on Harding Avenue in Cedar City offered a particularly clear example of the decisions Adams was describing.

WHEN THE GUN IS REAL

Just weeks before the academy, Cedar City Police Chief Darin Adams led the law enforcement response to a man barricaded inside a building on Harding Avenue with a firearm, threatening to take his own life. While the man was speaking with his therapist, his wife managed to call 911. 

When Adams arrived, he received a call from the man’s therapist, whom he had known for years. After speaking briefly, the two established a three-way conversation with the man inside the building. Adams subsequently handed the conversation over to the county’s crisis negotiators, who continued communicating with him in an effort to reach a peaceful resolution.

“It was just like you saw in the scenarios,” Adams said. “It was conversation, it was talking, it was de-escalation.”

Negotiators worked with the man to establish an agreement under which he would leave his firearm inside the building, come outside with his hands visible and allow officers to search him before receiving mental health assistance. Although the man agreed to cooperate, Adams said sniper teams were positioned as a precaution in case the situation deteriorated.

“That’s always a calculated risk,” Adams explained. “But you build that rapport enough to where they feel comfortable.”

The man ultimately followed through on the agreement, placing his firearm in a room inside the building before slowly coming outside and sitting on the curb. A Utah Highway Patrol trooper who had participated in the negotiations approached and spoke with him as he kept his hands visible.

Officers searched the man for weapons, but they did not place him in handcuffs. Instead, they focused on getting him the mental health assistance he needed.

Adams recalled the trooper reassuring the man that officers would help him obtain the services he needed. The man was subsequently taken to a hospital, where Adams believes an emergency mental health hold, commonly referred to as a “pink sheet,” was initiated.

The standoff ended peacefully, without officers having to use force against the man.

The incident illustrated the importance of the crisis intervention principles Adams has spent more than two decades helping establish in southern Utah. From his initial communication with the man and his therapist to the coordinated law enforcement response, officers worked to maintain safety while providing the man an opportunity to surrender and receive treatment.

Although the Harding Avenue incident involved specialized crisis negotiators and tactical precautions beyond the basic CIT curriculum, Adams said the communication and de-escalation techniques were similar to those practiced during the academy. Friday’s suicidal veteran scenario presented many of the same challenges, but in a controlled environment where officers could evaluate their decisions without the consequences of an actual armed confrontation.

WHY THESE OFFICERS CHOSE TO BE THERE

One of the more surprising aspects of the CIT Academy is that, according to Adams, the program’s best-practice standards emphasize voluntary participation. However, that wasn’t always how Cedar City approached the training.

When Adams first became a regional coordinator, he recalled that the department initially sought to put all of its officers through the academy as a way of reducing liability. Over time, however, the focus shifted toward encouraging officers with a genuine interest in crisis intervention to pursue the specialized training themselves.

Adams compared CIT to assignments such as SWAT, K-9 and bicycle patrol, where officers often seek additional responsibilities because they have a particular interest in the work.

“People have to want to do those things, right, in order for it to be effective,” Adams explained.

He said the skills taught during the academy require continued practice and a willingness to apply them long after the training ends. An officer who completes CIT but doesn’t maintain those skills may struggle to recall or properly use them years later, potentially making an already difficult situation worse.

“We can train someone in CIT and then three years later they haven’t kept it up,” Adams explained.

That’s one reason the Cedar City Police Department also provides Integrating Communications, Assessment and Tactics (ICAT) training, which Adams described as a supplement to CIT offered more broadly to officers.

For the participants attending this year’s academy, however, Adams said their decision to volunteer reflected an interest in developing a deeper understanding of mental health response.

“All these people here today volunteered, because this is an area they want to do well in,” he said.

For Hurricane City Police Department officers Hagen Oliver and Paige Roundy, the decision to attend CIT came about in different ways, but both said the training gave them something valuable to take back to their departments.

Oliver said crisis intervention was an area that had interested him since he entered law enforcement. De-escalation, communication and helping people in distress were already important parts of how he approached his work, but the academy gave him greater confidence in those abilities and introduced additional techniques he was eager to use.

“Even getting into this career, CIT was something I’ve always been interested in, like, de-escalation, support,” Oliver said.

He was especially interested in situations where officers could help someone obtain treatment and potentially change the course of a crisis. Although he recognized that individuals struggling with mental health issues may experience setbacks or require repeated intervention, he said those challenges did not diminish the value of helping someone reach a positive outcome.

Roundy, however, admitted she hadn’t exactly signed herself up.

“I’m not gonna lie, I got asked by my lieutenant,” she said.

Having spent five years as a police officer, Roundy said she wished the opportunity had come earlier in her career.

“It’s something that everyone should go through, just to give you a better understanding,” she said. “It really puts it into perspective of, you know, what people in crisis go through, how hard it is to focus when people are asking questions.”

Her observation echoed the challenges participants encountered during Thursday’s Voices Simulation, when recorded voices interfered with seemingly routine tasks such as listening, remembering information and communicating with others.

The experience also encouraged officers to reconsider behaviors that might otherwise be dismissed as someone simply being difficult or refusing to cooperate. Understanding that psychiatric symptoms can affect how someone perceives the world, processes information or responds to instructions may change how officers approach those encounters.

For Roundy, what began as an assignment from her lieutenant ended up being training she was glad to have received.

“But yeah, I enjoyed the training. I’m not mad about it. I’m actually glad,” she said.

For Adams, that willingness to learn and improve is an important part of what makes crisis intervention effective.

“It takes a special desire to want to come in and understand why this is important and how this can assist someone on the road.”

BEHIND THE TRAINING: CIT UTAH AND ITS REGIONAL PARTNERS

Behind the scenarios, classroom instruction and practical exercises is a statewide network of mental health professionals, law enforcement personnel and community partners working to improve how officers respond to individuals experiencing mental health crises.

CIT Utah is directed by Dr. Todd Soutor, a licensed psychologist with nearly three decades of experience, and his wife, Danielle Soutor, who brings more than 30 years of business management experience to the program. Together, they oversee crisis intervention training across Utah, with Dr. Soutor providing clinical expertise and Danielle managing officer registration, recertification and program operations.

Locally, Cedar City Police Detective Corporal Patrick McCoy and John Brown, program manager at Southwest Behavioral Health, serve as regional coordinators, working alongside the Soutors to organize and guide the academy. Their efforts bring together instructors, law enforcement agencies, mental health professionals and community resources to provide officers with both practical training and a better understanding of the services available throughout southern Utah.

Among those resources is the Crisis Stabilization Center (CSC) in Hurricane, a voluntary facility operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for adults experiencing mental health emergencies. The center provides crisis assessments, stabilization services and assistance connecting individuals with continued treatment and community support. Most individuals remain at the facility for approximately 23 hours or until their immediate crisis has stabilized.

For law enforcement, the center offers an alternative to transporting someone to a hospital emergency department or jail when the circumstances make that option appropriate.

Another important resource is the Mobile Crisis Outreach Team (MCOT), which provides around-the-clock crisis intervention services throughout Utah. The teams pair mental health professionals with peer specialists who respond directly to individuals experiencing a crisis, whether at home, in public or alongside law enforcement. Their work includes de-escalation, crisis assessment and connecting people with appropriate treatment and support.

Both resources reflect one of the central objectives of CIT: helping officers recognize when a situation calls for mental health intervention and ensuring they know where to turn when someone needs assistance beyond what law enforcement can provide.

“We’re taught to treat these situations as medical crises first, not criminal cases,” McCoy explained. “That means slowing things down, keeping people safe, and using the least amount of force necessary while still protecting the public and the officers on scene.”

Through the combined efforts of CIT Utah, regional coordinators and participating agencies, the academy continues to provide officers with training aimed at improving crisis response while strengthening the relationship between law enforcement and the mental health community.

The Zion Times extends our sincere thanks to CIT Utah, Dr. Todd and Danielle Soutor, as well as the regional coordinators for allowing us to be part of the academy another year. It is an honor to learn alongside the men and women who protect and serve, and to gain new perspective on the challenges they face when responding to mental health crises.

Check out last year’s story we did on the CIT Academy here:

TRAINING MENTAL HEALTH FIRST: OFFICERS COMPLETE CRISIS INTERVENTION ACADEMY