Award Information
Description of original award (Fiscal Year 2021, $150,000)
The main purpose of this project is to train police officers to learn to identify and treat people with crisis and reduce the use of force in cases where is not necessary. Through training and professional development, our Police has brought us the positive result that of the cases attended; the police officers only used a level 3 use of force, but this after exhausting all de-escalation techniques. With this project we want to implement a certified interdisciplinary training program for all CIT personnel in the Puerto Rico Police Bureau. This project is justified by the need to train PRPB personnel to address people in crisis or mental health issues. In the past, the PRPB did not receive adequate training to assist people in crisis, culminating in some cases with excessive use of force and poor implementation of de-escalation techniques .