Sixteen Graduate from Sheridan’s First CIT Training on Friday

There were 16 graduates in the Friday, April 22 ceremony for The Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) program held at the Watt Building at Sheridan College. CIT is a 40-hour training for law enforcement to help them deal with mental health issues. There were eight graduates from the Sheridan County Sheriff’s Office, seven from the Sheridan Police Department and one from the Sheridan Veteran’s Administration.

Sheridan County Sheriff Allen Thompson, Sheridan Police Chief Travis Koltiska, and Police Chief Roy Eckerdt of Powell were on hand to pass out the certificates and pins to the graduates.

Ann Perkins is the Community Prevention Manager in Sheridan, her focus is on suicide prevention, as well as drug and alcohol abuse. “This training qualifies for law enforcement’s continuing education. This is the first CIT training we have held, originally planned for April 2020. My goal is to host CIT trainings annually, so all of our law enforcement and First Responders are CIT trained. Each graduate of the program will receive a CIT pin to wear above their name badge on their uniform so the community will begin to recognize our CIT trained law enforcement. Wendy Morris with Healthy Park County have been mentoring me through this week as they have been doing CIT trainings in Park County since 2008.”

Perkins felt that there was a lot of support from area law enforcement for the program.

CIT is a partnership in the community of law enforcement, mental health and addiction professionals, as well as individuals who live with mental illness, addiction, and their families.

The training is designed as crisis intervention training so that people with mental disorders can have access to medical treatment rather than place them in the criminal justice system. It also promotes officer safety and the safety of the individual in crisis.

Sheriff Thompson said that it was good to have the training here in Sheridan, due to the time factor and people needing time off to travel out of town. He said that 74% of his patrol staff now have the CIT certificate and 20% of his detention staff. “We are hoping for 100%.” he added.

The graduates for this session were: Erasmo Fisher, Nevada Krinkee, Austin Boreczky, Zach Conlee, Daniel Keller, Stephanie Elder. Jeremy Kmett, Harrison Cummings, Kayla Oswald, Jerald Rasmussen, Kody Lamb, James Hill, Julian Vela Devereaux Johnson, Tom Ringley and Levi Dominguez.

For more about CIT, go to aperkins@sheridancountywy.gov