NBTPD officers recently participated in Integrating Communications, Assessment and Tactics (ICAT) training. ICAT was developed by the Police Executive Research Forum along with input from hundreds of police professionals across the United States. The training program provides tools, skills and options police officers need to defuse a range of critical incidents successfully and safely. ICAT was designed especially for situations that involve people who are unarmed or are armed with weapons other than firearms and who might be experiencing a mental health or other crisis.

ICAT takes the essential building blocks of critical thinking, crisis intervention, communications and tactics and puts them together in an integrated approach to training. This training program uses the Critical Decision-Making Model that helps officers assess situations, make safe and effective decisions and document, and learn from their actions. NBTPD officers were provided the opportunity to operationalize ICAT with various scenarios with the assistance of roll players from Middletown Township Police Department. NBTPD is committed to everyone’s safety and will continue to build on ICAT during the department’s in-service training.