Bolivar County officers complete crisis intervention training at Delta State

Bolivar County officers and deputies finished Crisis Intervention Training at Delta State University in Cleveland, adding a 40-hour de-escalation course to the way local law enforcement handles behavioral-health emergencies. The training is designed to help officers recognize distress, slow encounters down and connect people to treatment or other support instead of defaulting to an enforcement-only response.

The course follows the Crisis Intervention Team model, a 40-hour program developed in Memphis, Tennessee, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness. NAMI says CIT training is intended to improve police responses to people experiencing mental illness crises and connect them with care when possible. That makes the Cleveland campus setting more than a classroom backdrop: Delta State has become a visible public-safety partner in a county where deputies, city officers and campus police may all be sent to the same urgent call.

The need is plain in Mississippi’s numbers. The Mississippi Department of Mental Health says 421 lives were lost to suicide in the state and 107,000 adults had thoughts of suicide in the last year. Mississippi also launched its statewide 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline on July 16, 2022, and DMH describes it as confidential, free and available 24/7/365 for people in mental-health, substance-use or suicide crises.

State policy has moved in the same direction. The Mississippi Legislature passed House Bill 1222, the Mississippi Collaborative Response to Mental Health Act, in 2023, and a DMH funding proposal listed $300,000 for CIT for Law Enforcement in fiscal year 2023, with recurring annual funding in later years. DMH has also said it prioritizes training for law-enforcement officers during Mental Health Awareness Month, tying the classroom work to a broader push for crisis response across the state.

Delta State has already signaled that it wants to serve as a training hub. The university previously announced plans to host crisis intervention training alongside FBI CJIS law-enforcement sessions, reinforcing the campus’s role in public-safety preparation for Cleveland and the surrounding Delta. The real test now is on the street, where the next welfare check, domestic dispute or suicide-related call will show whether officers use the new training to de-escalate first and connect people to help faster.