Officer Jason Love received a CIT award after dealing with a crisis situation. The CIT award stands for Crisis Intervention Team Training Award, which is given to an officer after they deal with a crisis situation, then they proceed to de-escalate the situation using the techniques that they learn during training. Love described how the situation began.

“As I was driving along doing my route, I received a call about a former police officer who was acting erratic and also saying how he wanted to hurt himself,” Love said. “So, when I first arrived on the scene, the man immediately took a fighting stance with me. However, the first thing I do when I come onto a crisis situation scene, I show my hands and talk to him gently to show him that I am not going to hurt him. He then starts to calm down enough for the other first responders to take a look at him and assess him, then take him to the hospital.” 

Love explained how he was recognized by other first responders as well as his supervisors.

“My supervisors and other first responders noticed how I had handled the situation. They had told me that they have had other calls to this house, and this was the first time the first responders have seen the person in a crisis calm down,” Love said. “ So about a month later, my supervisor called me into a meeting with all of the other supervisors and they gave me the CIT award and told me that they had seen my body cam footage and were impressed at how I handled the situation. So they then took the footage of me in the crisis situation and sent it to a training team so that it could be a part of the training videos for future cops.” 

According to Attendance Secretary, Sarah Schiffer, Officer Love has a calm and collected attitude towards every situation.

“Usually anytime that we have a situation where he is needed, he always stays calm and collected. For instance, he had to jump into a situation quickly, and even when he went into that state of mind where he had to diffuse an elevated situation, he moved very quickly. However he still stayed calm throughout the whole situation. He definitely calms the situation by just how he carries himself into a crisis situation,” Schiffer said. “Even his demeanor, how he reacts, how he carries himself in some circumstances is very non-threatening. So he is able to diffuse situations easily.” 

Officer Love explained how he didn’t think he would receive any award for just doing his job.

“ I didn’t think I would receive an award for doing this call, I was just doing my job. I was doing something that if I was in that situation, I would want someone to do with me. My goal while I am working is to treat them like a human being. So I think it was just my demeanor and my tactics helped me with this call,” Love said. “I wanted to become a cop, not to have power, but to help people. I will say it was really nice to be acknowledged for hard work.”