IDAHO FALLS - Imagine being a police officer and not knowing how to handle a situation because the person was mentally disabled. Issues like this aren't too uncommon.

Which is why Sam Cochran is going across the nation and spreading the message of how important it is to have local agencies take part in the Crisis Intervention Team training.

Various groups such as the Idaho Falls and Pocatello police departments, Idaho Falls Fire, Bonneville County Sheriff's Office and many other outside members of the community sat in a presentation explaining the importance of having C.I.T. members on hand.

"A lot of problems with the mentally disabled aren't criminal justice per say, but we respond because it's a crisis situation. So the officer knows how to deal with that appropriately then they're going to be safer and also the person involved is going to be safer. And we're going to be able to deal with that situation more appropriately," explains Idaho Falls Police Chief, Steve Roos.

With the proper knowledge and training, officers could prevent taking a non-criminal to jail.

"We know that that's not the best place. We know that's not the safest place for them. So we don't want a mental health facility in our jail. We would rather have mental health professionals working with these individuals," says Bonneville County Sheriff, Paul Wilde.

Though both the I.F.P.D. And Sheriff's Office have a few members of their staff with this training, they plan to have more take the course.

"If you can get one or two guys per shift, then you have someone there and available on most cases that are trained to handle these kinds of things," says Wilde.

The National Alliance on Mental Illness will be holding a free C.I.T. training course in February; which is the first C.I.T. academy in Idaho.

For more information, you can call Kim Jardine-Dickerson with the Idaho State School of Nursing at 589-7667.