We constantly listen to police scanners in our newsroom and we hear many odd situations that never make the air, mainly because people are endangering themselves and need mental help.

I never realized how many of these runs police make until I met with the CIT Coordinator Denise Spratt and I saw the police records from 2005. I would have thought a few hundred of these cases, maybe two or three a day. In fact, Metro Police made 3,068 CIT runs in 2005!

That's more than eight per day! What also might surprise you is how few of those 3,068 CIT runs ended with police using force. Only 80. And of those 80, a taser was used only 25 times.

That report also includes an interesting breakdown of where the CIT runs are made and who the subjects are.

Demographics:

White Male - 1132
White Female - 941
Black Male - 521
Black Female - 446
Asian Male - 15
Asian Female - 4
Hispanic Male - 4
Hispanic Female - 4
Arab Male - 1
Total - 3068

Location (by LMPD Divisions)

1st - 476
2nd - 321
3rd - 393
4th - 715
5th - 227
6th - 386
7th - 324
8th - 202

The 4th division is based in Central Park in Old Louisville and stretches into the HIghlands, and as far South as Iroquois Park.

History:
LMPD officers shot Rodney Abernathy to death in 2000. He had paranoid schizophrenia and police were criticized for not being prepared to deal with those who are mentally ill.

Thus was formed the Crisis Intervention Team. Officers go through 40 hours of traning and another 8 hours observing psychiatric work at University Hospital, all to gain skills and an understanding of effective and peaceful ways to bring a mentally disturbed person into compliance.

Dispatchers are also trained to know when a call requires a "CIT" run. Their goal is to send CIT trained officers to those situations.