The 40-hour course, taught by law enforcement and mental health professionals, focused on deescalation techniques and connecting people in crisis with resources — how to speak, what to say and when to listen.

SLPD Chief Darin Perrotte, who helped lead the CIT training and teaches crisis intervention fundamentals at the police academies, said this training is a proactive step to effectively respond to mental health crises.

“I firmly believe that these skills are the most critical skills that we can have as police officers,” Perrotte said.

Out of approximately 18,000 police departments in the country, only around 3,000 have CIT-trained officers, he said.

Karli Lawson, right, a therapist embedded with the Saranac Lake Police Department through its Counselor and Law Enforcement Partnership, gets her Crisis Intervention Team training certificate at the Saranac Lake Police station from mental health instructor Kourtni Souliere on Friday. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Marbone)

“I think that everyone should have to take this training in every police department,” SLPD Officer Gabrielle Beebe said. “I think it should be mandatory.”

While the training was focused on people having a crisis because of mental health, Perrotte said nearly everyone they deal with is in crisis.

“Very seldom are folks calling the police because they’re having a great day,” he said.

Whether it’s a teen’s first car crash, the victim of a crime or a suspect in a crime, he said they need to be able to communicate and deescalate.

State Police Trooper Lorenzo Natalie said he is in his first year in law enforcement and wants to learn the best possible practices. Already, pretty much every day, he said he’s dealing with people with mental health crises. At the training, he said he learned listening is the most important step. He said officers need to empathize before connecting and directing.

Henry Amadi, a mental health clinician with Community Connections of Franklin County gets his Crisis Intervention Team training certificate at the Saranac Lake Police station, from mental health instructor Kourtni Souliere on Friday. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Marbone)

Trooper Ashley Pittman previously worked with people with developmental disabilities at Sunmount, the state Office for People With Developmental Disabilities facility in Tupper Lake, so she had experience working with people with mental health conditions.

“But you can never stop working,” Pittman said.

She said, unlike Sunmount, where residents are on medications, people in public may be dealing with mental health struggles without being medicated, or could have suffered a traumatic event that has not been treated yet. She said she learned about resources that she’ll use almost daily and added that she plans to spread the knowledge to her coworkers.

SLPD officer Gabe Faubert said he learned to humanize himself to connect with the person in crisis. He said the goal is to make the uniform disappear and make the person he’s talking to comfortable.

Beebe said mental health calls are increasing in volume. It’s also important for them to humanize members of the community. They’re all brothers, sisters, parents, she said, so treat them how you want your family treated.

“Dacks,” the yellow lab jumps for joy as Essex County Sheriff Deputy Joelle Stonitsch, right, gets her Crisis Intervention Team training certificate at the Saranac Lake Police station on Friday. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Marbone)

In 2021, Saranac Lake started a Counselor and Law Enforcement Partnership which embeds a therapist in the SLPD to assist on mental health and addiction calls. Karli Lawson, SLPD’s CALEP therapist, completed the course, too.

Kourtni Souliere, CIT instructor and associate director of crisis services for Behavioral Health Services North, said people call 911 when they don’t know who else to call. Police who respond can refer them to mental health professionals if needed.

The training involved running simulations of encounters, basing scenarios on what instructors have seen in real life. Souliere said this is meant to help officers identify the signs that someone might need crisis deescalation.

“They actually get to practice the communication skills so that they feel comfortable adding that dialogue to their toolbox,” she said.

Tyler Condlin, instructor and crisis coordinator for BHSN’s mobile crisis team, said they then gave feedback on the interactions. This was not groundbreaking info, he said, but a baseline for officers to feel comfortable in the field. He said the officers were invested in the classes.

Perrotte was CIT trained in 2012 and trained to instruct in CIT last year.

He said each department’s chief chose the officers who attended because of their skills — they want people skilled in communication and deescalation.

Perrotte said, ideally, every officer would be CIT trained. In the meantime, he hopes other officers will call in their CIT-trained colleagues if they realize they’re on a serious mental health call.

He plans to help host more of these trainings in the future.