NAMI Louisville has partnered with the Louisville Metro Police Department to provide Crisis Intervention Team training to police officers in Louisville. The purpose of CIT training is to teach officers how to respond to persons in mental health crisis. Officers are trained to spot symptoms, understand side effects of medications, deescalate dangerous situations, use physical force as a last resort and take persons to the hospital instead of to jail when possible. Over the past four years, NAMI Louisville has participated in the training of more than 300 police recruits and veteran officers. In 2009, NAMI Louisville will train more than 100 officers. In 2008, NAMI Louisville presented its first "CIT Officer of the Year" award at our annual Walk for Recovery. Officer Justin Hardy was honored for his commitment to the CIT program and his actions during several crisis intervention situations during his career. NAMI Louisville and the LMPD partnered to send Officer Hardy to the national Crisis Intervention Team conference in Atlanta. For more information about the National Alliance on Mental Illness and its involvement in CIT training nationwide, check out the NAMI CIT Technical Assistance Resource Center. If you are a police administrator in Kentucky, outside of Louisville, who needs CIT training for your officers, call NAMI Louisville. We can assist in getting a CIT training program in your community or work with the LMPD to allow your officers to attend training in Louisville.