Officer Kyle Myers of the Russells Point Police Department, right, was recently awarded the Logan and Champaign Crisis Intervention Team Award for 2020. Also pictured with him is Russells Point Police Department Chief Joe Freyhof. Officer Myers received 40 hours of CIT training in the fall of 2019 and was quick to put his training into practice with a high level of skill. CIT Training teaches the basics of understanding how someone’s mental health and related concerns can present themselves in a police-related crisis and how to respond in a way that not only de-escalates the crisis, but also ends up with the person being connected to treatment. Simply having severe symptoms of a mental illness increases the chance of police contact by 250 percent (Crocker, Hartford and Heslop, 2009). Officer Myers’ approach “reflects his keen insight and commitment to seeing that our neighbors who are having a crisis due to serious symptoms of a mental illness have every opportunity to receive the treatment needed to regain a sense of stability,” representatives said. “The Logan and Champaign CIT Program would like to congratulate Officer Myers for his outstanding work in this area.” (SUBMITTED PHOTO)