Exploring Police Training Models for Addressing Mental Illness in Rural Communities

A growing number of police departments in the United States have adopted specialized training models to handle situations involving people with mental illness (PWMI), including the Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) model and other models with reduced training hours (OMRTH). However, research on police chiefs' attitudes toward these training models, especially those working in rural areas, remains limited. To address this gap in the literature, this study explored the attitudes of rural police chiefs across two states regarding two categories of police training models (the CIT model and OMRTH) and examined factors influencing their viewpoints. The results revealed that chiefs in rural areas demonstrated favorable attitudes toward the CIT model but negative attitudes toward OMRTH. Policy implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.