The Texas Commission on Law Enforcement has mandated that all cadets receive 24 hours of de-escalation/crisis intervention training. This mandate took effect January 2005. Officer Frank Webb, of the Houston Police Department, was the discipline chair of the committee that developed that curriculum. The Houston Police Department exceeds this mandate by 16 hours providing its cadets with 40 hours of CIT training. The cadets cover all of the learning objectives of the 40-hour class for veteran CIT officers. The cadets graduate as CIT officers.

Emergency communications personnel (call takers and dispatchers) are crucial to the success of a CIT program. Call-takers have to code appropriate calls as CIT calls and dispatchers have to dispatch those calls to the CIT trained officers. The Houston Police Department provides all call-takers and dispatchers with 16 hours of training. Call-takers and dispatchers are crucial to the success of the CIT program. It is important they understand the objectives of the program, liability issues related to not coding appropriate calls with the CIT designator, and the liability of not dispatching an available CIT officer to a CIT coded call. Call-takers and dispatchers also receive basic training about the major mental illnesses. Emphasis is placed on depression and suicide and how to talk with a suicidal caller.

Increasingly, correctional facilities are providing crisis intervention training for their employees. The Harris County Jail, for example, has started a CIT program for correctional officers. The Houston Police Department has short-term jails that are holding facilities until the prisoners can be transported to the Harris County jail system. Houston Police Department jailers currently receive two hours and medical personnel receive three hours of training. The training for jailers focuses on de-escalation techniques and a concise explanation of mental illness. The training for medical personnel focuses on the causes of psychosis, a "hearing voices" exercise, a discussion about policy and procedure, and a documentary film depicting mentally ill inmates in the Ohio prison system.

Texas is the only state in the nation to mandate
de-escalation/crisis intervention training for all law enforcement officers in the state. This legislation, The Bob Meadours Act, Senate Bill 1473, took effect September 1, 2005. All Texas peace officers must complete 16 hours of de-escalation/crisis intervention training by September 1, 2009. The Houston Police Department is providing this class (Texas Commission on Law Enforcement course number 3841) an average of once a week for two years to train all of its officers. This training started in the Houston Police Department in September 2006 and will run through August 2008.

Houston has a hybrid CIT program. It is comprised of veteran patrol officers and cadets. The program is voluntary for the veteran officers and mandatory for the cadets. The training is the same for both groups. The class is taught collaboratively by members of the Houston Police Department and mental health professionals from Houston/Harris County. The major topics of instruction are: schizophrenia, psychosis, bipolar disorder, suicide, active listening, de-escalation techniques, the Texas Mental Health Code, substance abuse, and officer safety. An important aspect of the training is role-playing. Students put into practice the techniques taught in the classroom. Each role-play is critiqued from an officer safety and crisis response perspective. Another important aspect of the training is a presentation by a mental health consumer who talks about his experiences with mental illness. This person puts a human face on this devastating illness. Houston's CIT program is based on the Memphis, Tennessee model.

A second 40-hour class provided by the Houston Police Department is a train-the-trainer. This class is directed to those officers who are becoming CIT trainers. Houston's CIT curriculum is based on the Memphis, Tennessee model.
 

Texas has over 1,200 police chiefs. All chiefs receive 40 hours of training every two years. This training, Texas Chief of Police Leadership Series, is provided by the Bill Blackwood Law Enforcement Management Institute of Texas (LEMIT) at Sam Houston State University. The state mandated CIT training was part of the 2006-2007 training cycle. Because of the statewide leadership role of the Houston Police Department regarding CIT training, Senior Officer Frank Webb was asked to present this material.