Officer Matt Long Receives Nomination and Award for Outstanding Efforts in Helping Those with Mental Illness

The National Alliance on Mental Health-Wake Recognizes
Local CIT Officers

Cary chapter PBA member Matt Long was recognized as the Crisis Intervention Team Officer of the Year for the Cary Police Department on Friday, October 5, 2007 at a luncheon and awards ceremony in Raleigh. The luncheon and awards ceremony was an opportunity for the National Alliance on Mental Health-Wake to demonstrate its support and appreciation for Wake County law enforcement officers who serve as Crisis Intervention Team officers.

Police officers are often called on to respond to crisis situations involving persons with serious mental illness. Based on a program first established in Memphis, Tennessee in 1988, the CIT program is a pre-booking jail diversion program. The overall goal of the CIT training program is to treat mental illness as a disease, not a crime. CIT officers receive forty hours of specialized training in mental illness, crisis intervention and resource education so that they will be better-prepared to work with the individual in crisis. The objective is to get the individual to the appropriate resource for appropriate care.

The first North Carolina CIT program began in Wake County in 2005. It is a community-based collaboration between those individuals with mental health issues, their families, law enforcement agencies, the Wake County Local Managing Entity, and the National Alliance on Mental Health. The first class of CIT officers graduated in September 2005 and the 10th class graduated in September 2007. There are 270 CIT-trained officers in Wake County.

Numerous law enforcement agencies in Wake County – at NAMI’s request, selected an officer or a group of officers for the “Officer of the Year” award from CIT officers within their agency. In addition, from those selections, NAMI-Wake County chose an “Officer of the Year” from those nominations. A Raleigh Police officer was chosen as the eventual overall winner.

Officer Long was nominated by his supervisor and fellow Cary chapter member, Sgt. Toni Dezomits. The nomination focused on a project that he started in working with citizens dealing with mental health issues. These citizen’s are referred to as “consumers.” The term was coined in an attempt to empower those with mental health issues, who are usually considered a marginalized segment of society. Officer Long’s project sought to determine what effects follow-up by a CIT officer would have on repeat calls to consumers. In essence, after an initial response to a crisis intervention call, a CIT officer would make a self-initiated follow-up visit to the consumer’s home to ensure they are receiving treatment, medication, or still needed to talk to someone. Officer Long found that such an endeavor was very beneficial and that the self-initiated contact with consumers in Cary could reduce future emergency calls for service. In her nomination, Dezomits detailed Long’s commitment to the project and the positive feedback she had received from consumers about his compassion towards them. According to Dezomits, “Long began this project without prompting and with a genuine concern to further the CIT program in our agency. I have received several calls from individuals who have told me that Long’s caring and patient demeanor helped them get through their crisis.” Dezomits further summed up her nomination of Long with the following assessment of his value to the department and the CIT program, “He is an asset to this agency as well as to the CIT program and I would strongly encourage consideration to name him as CIT Officer of the Year.”

Long started his law enforcement career with the Washington DC Metro Police Department and then worked for the Mesa, Arizona Police Department before coming to Cary as an officer in 2004. He currently is assigned to the IMPACT team. Long has an Associate degree in criminal justice from Prince Georges County Community College. He and his wife, Donna live in Fuquay Varina, N.C.