Crisis Intervention Training.
This chapter covers what a Texas peace officer must know about crisis Intervention Training, along with the statute limits that shape each element, at the level of detail the TCOLE tests.
Chapter 29 study guide.
This chapter teaches you to recognize when a call involves mental illness, a cognitive or developmental condition, trauma or suicide risk, and to slow the encounter down with words instead of force. It also covers the one legal tool that belongs to you alone in these calls: the emergency detention under Chapter 573 of the Health and Safety Code.
Study it in four blocks. First, why CIT exists and what mental illness is. Second, the conditions and how each one looks on the street. Third, the communication tools such as the Three-Point Assessment and LEAPS. Fourth, the law and the options for diversion. The numbers quoted here are the ones printed in the TCOLE outline, so learn them as the outline gives them.
Jump to an objective60
Why Crisis Intervention Training exists
Officers are being called on to respond to people in serious mental health crises. To do that well you need to understand mental illness and the tactics that have been proven to work with people in crisis.
Those tactics are different from the ones routinely taught to manage conflict. The reason is simple: the behavior you see in a mental health crisis is usually not criminal or malicious at its root.
On the exam If an answer treats crisis behavior as deliberate defiance or criminal intent, it is probably the wrong one.
The underlying element behind behavior related to mental illness is usually not criminal or .
CIT tactics and techniques are from those routinely taught to officers to manage conflict.
Mental health crisis as a law enforcement problem
About three percent of adults in the United States have a severe form of mental illness. By the most conservative estimates, people with severe mental illness account for at least a quarter of all fatalities involving law enforcement. The Treatment Advocacy Center reports that the risk of being killed when approached or stopped by police is 16 times higher for a person with untreated serious mental illness than for other civilians.
People with mental illness are fewer than 4 in every 100 adults, yet they generate no less than 1 in 10 calls for police service. About 1 in 3 people taken to a hospital emergency room in psychiatric crisis are taken there by police. A Washington Post study counted 990 fatal officer-involved shootings in 2015, and in 25 percent of them the subject showed signs of mental illness.
A common pattern is a family calling for help getting a relative to a hospital. Officers arrive, the person is holding something that looks dangerous, and it ends in deadly force. The family and the community then ask whether de-escalation could have been used. Historically, officer training did not focus heavily on crisis intervention or de-escalation.
On the exam Keep the ratios straight: 1 in 10 calls for service, 1 in 3 emergency room transports, 16 times the risk.
People with mental illness generate no less than 1 in calls for police service.
The risk of being killed when stopped by police is times higher for a person with untreated serious mental illness.
Memphis, SB 1849 and the training mandates
CIT was conceived in Memphis, Tennessee. In September 1987 officers answered a 911 call about a young man with a history of mental illness who was cutting himself and threatening suicide. As they were then trained to do, they confronted him and demanded he drop the knife. He became more upset, ran at them, and was shot and killed. That death was the catalyst for the creation of CIT a year later.
Texas Senate Bill 1849 (Senator Whitmire, 2017) made three key points. Officers are required to learn de-escalation techniques to reduce the use of force. Each law enforcement agency must make a good faith effort to divert a person suffering a mental health crisis or substance abuse to proper treatment. And it set up an easier process for people with mental illness or intellectual disability to receive a personal bond.
The training requirements sit in Occupations Code Chapter 1701. Section 1701.253(j) requires a 40-hour program on de-escalation and crisis intervention techniques for interacting with persons with mental impairments, including instruction on Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias. It cannot be satisfied by an online course. Subsection (n) adds de-escalation training for interacting with members of the public, including techniques for limiting the use of force resulting in bodily injury.
- Occupations Code Sec. 1701.253(j) · School CurriculumRequires a 40-hour statewide program on de-escalation and crisis intervention techniques to facilitate interaction with persons with mental impairments, including Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias. An online course does not satisfy it.
- Occupations Code Sec. 1701.253(n) · School CurriculumRequires a program on de-escalation techniques for interacting with members of the public, including techniques for limiting the use of force resulting in bodily injury.
- Occupations Code Sec. 1701.273 · Training on Incident Response and CommandAdded in 2025 and tied to Sec. 1701.253(u). The outline lists it among the Chapter 1701 changes connected with this training.
On the exam Know the city where CIT began, the bill number, and the 40-hour figure.
The CIT program was conceived in , Tennessee.
Under SB 1849, each agency shall make a effort to divert a person in mental health crisis to proper treatment.
Occupations Code 1701.253(j) requires a hour program on de-escalation and crisis intervention techniques.
Questions on what you just read.
- Question 1 · LO 29.2
According to the TCOLE outline, people with mental illness make up fewer than 4 in every 100 adults. About what share of calls for police service do they generate?
- Question 2 · LO 29.3
A recruit asks whether the crisis intervention requirement in Occupations Code 1701.253(j) can be met with an online class. What does the statute say?
- Question 3 · LO 29.1
You are sent to a man pacing and shouting at no one in a bus shelter. What does the chapter tell you about the root of behavior like this?
The rest of Chapter 29.
- LO 29.4The goal of CIT2 fill-in-the-blank
- LO 29.5CIT and community relations2 fill-in-the-blank
- LO 29.6What “crisis” means2 fill-in-the-blank
- LO 29.7Causes of a mental health crisis1 fill-in-the-blank
- LO 29.8What mental illness is2 fill-in-the-blank
- LO 29.9Insanity is a legal term1 authority · 2 fill-in-the-blank
- LO 29.10Normal versus abnormal behavior1 fill-in-the-blank
- LO 29.11Mental health statistics2 fill-in-the-blank
- LO 29.12Why people do not seek treatment1 fill-in-the-blank
- LO 29.13Stigma2 fill-in-the-blank
- LO 29.14Psychotropic medications2 fill-in-the-blank
- LO 29.15Why people stop taking medication1 fill-in-the-blank
- LO 29.16Myths about mental illness2 fill-in-the-blank
- LO 29.17Mental health conditions fall on a continuum1 fill-in-the-blank
- LO 29.18Personality disorders4 key terms · 2 fill-in-the-blank
- LO 29.19Mood disorders3 fill-in-the-blank
- LO 29.20Thought disorders4 key terms · 2 fill-in-the-blank
- LO 29.21Substance use and the drug categories7 key terms · 2 fill-in-the-blank
- LO 29.22Cognitive disorders and delirium2 fill-in-the-blank
- LO 29.23Traumatic brain injury2 fill-in-the-blank
- LO 29.24Dementia and Alzheimer’s disease2 fill-in-the-blank
- LO 29.25Talking with a person who has dementia2 fill-in-the-blank
- LO 29.26Developmental disorders and autism2 fill-in-the-blank
- LO 29.27Intellectual disability and its degrees2 fill-in-the-blank
- LO 29.29Communicating with a person who has an intellectual disability2 fill-in-the-blank
- LO 29.30Causes of post-traumatic stress2 fill-in-the-blank
- LO 29.31Symptoms of PTSD2 fill-in-the-blank
- LO 29.32Trauma and veterans2 fill-in-the-blank
- LO 29.33Moral injury1 fill-in-the-blank
- LO 29.34Survivor’s guilt1 fill-in-the-blank
- LO 29.35Recognizing PTSD in a veteran2 fill-in-the-blank
- LO 29.36Rapport with veterans, and intimate partner violence and PTSD2 fill-in-the-blank
- LO 29.37Suicide statistics2 fill-in-the-blank
- LO 29.38Suicide risk factors2 fill-in-the-blank
- LO 29.39Protective factors against suicide1 fill-in-the-blank
- LO 29.40The suicide risk assessment2 fill-in-the-blank
- LO 29.41Support resources and further risk factors1 fill-in-the-blank
- LO 29.42Law enforcement suicide2 fill-in-the-blank
- LO 29.43Changing the mental health culture in policing2 fill-in-the-blank
- LO 29.44Communicating in a crisis: safety, stability, problem solving2 fill-in-the-blank
- LO 29.45The Three-Point Assessment2 fill-in-the-blank
- LO 29.46The 5 Universal Truths of Human Interaction2 fill-in-the-blank
- LO 29.47Gaining trust and building rapport2 fill-in-the-blank
- LO 29.48The 80/20 rule1 fill-in-the-blank
- LO 29.49The LEAPS model2 fill-in-the-blank
- LO 29.50Reflecting statements1 fill-in-the-blank
- LO 29.51“I” statements versus “you” statements2 fill-in-the-blank
- LO 29.52Tactical transparency1 fill-in-the-blank
- LO 29.53Responding to verbal abuse1 fill-in-the-blank
- LO 29.54Deinstitutionalization2 fill-in-the-blank
- LO 29.55Homelessness and mental illness1 fill-in-the-blank
- LO 29.56Violence, victimization and mental illness2 fill-in-the-blank
- LO 29.57The peace officer’s emergency detention3 statutes and cases · 4 fill-in-the-blank
- LO 29.58Transport and officer safety1 fill-in-the-blank
- LO 29.59Diversion2 fill-in-the-blank
- LO 29.60Mental health court2 fill-in-the-blank
- LO 29.61Community and referral resources2 fill-in-the-blank
A subscription opens the other 57 objectives in this chapter, with 102 more fill-in-the-blank items and 7 more practice questions, along with the study guide for every other BPOC chapter.
Unlock the full guideLast checked against the Texas statutes in September 2026. This guide is a study aid for the TCOLE licensing exam. It is not legal advice, and your academy’s instruction and your department’s policy come first.
The law that drives the questions.
What recruits ask about this chapter.
What should a Texas peace officer understand about origins of Crisis Intervention Training (CIT)?
Discuss the origins of Crisis Intervention Training (CIT). Includes: law enforcement is being called upon to respond to individuals in serious mental health crises;
What should a Texas peace officer understand about problem of mental health crisis as it pertains to law enforcement?
Discuss the problem of mental health crisis as it pertains to law enforcement. Includes: there are recurring situations in which law enforcement uses unnecessary, excessive, or deadly force during encounters with individuals in mental health crisis;
What should a Texas peace officer understand about SB 1849 and the legislative mandates that resulted?
Discuss SB 1849 and the legislative mandates that resulted. Includes: “In September 1987, White Memphis police officers answered a 911 call. A young African American man with a history of mental illness was cutting himself with a knife and threatening suicide.
What does the TCOLE curriculum say about reiterate the goal of CIT?
Reiterate the goal of CIT. Includes: “The primary goal of CITs involves calming persons with mental illness who are in crisis and referring them to mental health care services, rather than incarcerating them.
Related study guides in Special Populations.
Drill this chapter with practice questions written from the BPOC curriculum.
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