The Overland Police Department has participated in the St. Louis County Crisis Intervention Team or CIT for the past 15+ years.
The CIT Program is a collaboration between police and mental health organizations. "CIT" describes both a program and a training in law enforcement to help guide interactions between law enforcement and those living with a mental illness. In St. Louis County, the training consists of 40 hours of training.
The majority of Overland Police Officers are CIT trained with our goal being to have all of our officers trained in CIT. Our CIT Trained Officers are identified by the "CIT" Pin on their uniform above their name tag.
Our officers respond to a little under 200 CIT calls for service per year with the overall goal being to get the person experiencing a mental crisis the help they need. One of the agencies we refer people to is Behavioral Health Response or BHR. Frequently people request help themselves and we assist in getting them that help.
Lt. Theresa Cover is the Overland Police Department CIT Coordinator. She attends the CIT Conference each year which provides new information to advance the program.
For more information regarding the CIT program, contact Lt. Cover at 314-428-1221 or email at theresac@overlandmo.org.