Evaluation of consequences of implementation of police crisis intervention team in Louisville.

The police crisis intervention team (CIT) for managing emergent situations that involve mentally ill subjects was instituted in Louisville in 2002. The program was described in a special article that appeared in the Journal of the Kentucky Medical Association in June 2003. To determine the impact of CIT on the outcome of police calls, we reviewed police records for 2002, the first full year of CIT operation, and 2004, the year after consolidation of city and county police forces, and compared them with pre-CIT statistics (2001), when available. We also reviewed local jail occupancy records after the introduction of CIT and compared them to pre-CIT records. Louisville Metro Police average some 2672 CIT runs annually. The majority of these runs (90%) result in bringing a subject to the hospital. Arrest rate for CIT runs is lower than non-CIT runs (2.1% vs 6.2%, respectively, P < 0.01). Hostage negotiation team callouts dropped by half. While the occupancy of the mental health unit in Jefferson County Jail has stayed relatively constant at around 1,100 patients/year, the referrals to intense psychiatric services (eg, Central State Hospital) has greatly dropped (from 53% in 2001 to 26.8% in 2004, P < 0.01). The data suggests that the introduction of CIT has had an overall positive effect on outcomes of situations in which mentally ill subjects are confronted by police officers.