Bexar County Crisis Response and Intervention Training (CRIT) Program

Bexar County, Texas (includes the city of San Antonio) is a predominately working class, Latino, South Texas community of more than two million individuals.  Within Bexar County, there will be approximately 74,000 unique arrests with many individuals being arrested more than once within a calendar year.  

The Sandra Bland Act was signed by the Governor of Texas in 2017 and improved the way in which front line law enforcement officers interact with individuals who have a behavioral health disorder.  The Sandra Bland Act left some criminal justice stakeholders without mandated training.  Community supervision officers and detention officers within the jail are not identified in the Act.  Courthouse personnel such as judges, attorneys, and even court clerks who have daily interaction with and different levels of jurisdiction over justice-involved individuals are also unaffected.  

The purpose of the Bexar County Crisis Response and Intervention Training (CRIT) Program is to conduct a programmatic analysis of the training needs for community supervision officers (pre-trial services and adult probation); correctional/detention officers within the county jail; and, ancillary criminal justice stakeholders as well as provide this training.  

For Year One, Bexar County will hire a strategic planner who surveys the criminal justice stakeholders to determine the training needs of personnel vis-a-vis crisis response and intervention.  A gaps analysis will be conducted that identifies where the training needs are and how best they can be met.  Throughout the planning period, Bexar County will depend on the Police-Mental Health Collaboration Self-Assessment Tool.

Beginning in Year Two, Bexar County will hire a trainer who can provide the Crisis Response and Intervention Training (CRIT) Program.  This program will be offered to more than 300 Bexar County staff to include Pre-Trial Supervision Officers, Adult Probation Officers, Adult Detention Center Officers and any other courthouse personnel who will volunteer to participate in training and who have day-to-day interaction with justice-involved individuals.  The CRIT Program is a forty (40) hour training program designed to prepare Bexar County staff in their response to people experiencing crises related to behavioral health conditions and intellectual and developmental disabilities.  

The capability and experience of the Bexar County stakeholders have been established.  All stakeholders have demonstrated subject matter expertise.  Program evaluation will focus on outcomes versus outputs in order to assess if the response of justice personnel to individuals in crisis has been improved and diverts these individuals into treatment opportunities that were less costly and more impactful.