Reading crisis versus intoxication versus intent
The response differs and the first read is often wrong. Officers practise distinguishing behaviour that signals crisis from behaviour that signals a decision to fight.
Training for Crisis Intervention Teams
Built for CIT Programs.
ATCG complements CIT directly. Where CIT focuses on mental-health recognition, we add the operational layer: presence, verbal control, positioning, and measured response.
CIT officers get sent to the calls nobody else wants and are expected to resolve them without force, often with no mental health professional on scene and no bed to take anyone to.
ATCG trains the operational half of that job. Officers work on recognising what they are looking at, communicating with someone whose reasoning is not tracking, and keeping tactical options open while they do it.
Programs are built following IADLEST standards. We work alongside your existing CIT curriculum rather than replacing the clinical content your mental health partners deliver.
What ATCG does for you
The operational layer on top of CIT: presence, verbal control, positioning
Behavioral communication grounded in work with vulnerable, high-needs populations
Measured physical control and less-lethal decision-making in crisis encounters
Recommended programs
- Crisis Intervention & Tactical Response
- Tactical Communication & De-Escalation
Every program is scoped to your environment and goals. Let’s build the right fit.
What we train against
The problems cit programs bring to the room
Talking to someone not tracking logic
Reasoning with a person in psychosis fails, and officers who keep trying escalate the encounter. Scenarios cover what to use instead.
Time as the main tactic
Most crisis calls improve if nobody forces a resolution. Officers practise holding a scene, managing containment and resisting the pull to act because the encounter is uncomfortable.
When it goes hands-on anyway
Some crisis calls end in physical control. Officers learn to do that with the least force the situation allows and to articulate why it became necessary.
What you have afterward
Where your team stands at the end
Officers get scenario repetitions on the call types that generate the most complaints and the most risk, with a structure for deciding when to wait and when to move.
Your CIT coordinator gets a debrief showing how the team handled each scenario and where training should go next.
Questions
Before you book
No. The 40-hour model carries clinical education that mental health partners are better placed to teach. ATCG adds scenario-based practice on the communication and tactical side.
Not quite your role? See everyone we train or ask us directly.