crisis intervention training to particularly help those with mental illness. This program is aimed at diverting those in a mental health crisis from ending up in jail. The goal of the program is to improve the safety of officers, family members and people in the community and to direct people with mental illness away from the judicial system and into the healthcare system. Through this program, officers are given 40 hours of comprehensive training that includes de-escalation techniques. Officers engage in role-playing various scenarios as part of this program. According to The Memphis Crisis Intervention Team, research on the efficacy of CIT shows that it helps officers feel more confident, increases jail diversion for those with mental illness, increases the likelihood that those with mental illness get treatment, and injury to officers is significantly reduced. Compton et al. (2008) conducted a comprehensive review of the existing research on the effectiveness of the Memphis Model of the Crisis Intervention Team. While research is limited, the authors note that there is preliminary support that the Memphis Model may be helpful in connecting those with mental illness to the psychiatric services that they need. The authors further note that police officers knowledge and confidence improve with such training. Arrest rates also appear to be lower by officers trained in the CIT model. According to PBS, the Memphis Model has expanded to approximately 3,000 law enforcement agencies across the United States. However, there are shortcomings to the research done on the effectiveness of the CIT programs such as lack of control groups and small sample sizes. The CIT programs around the country seem limited to addressing instituting de-escalation interventions with the mentally ill and not with the broader range of offenders that law enforcement officers may encounter. Furthermore, not all officers are trained in CIT; only self-selected police officers participate in this specialized training. Apex Officer There are other training programs, most notably the Apex Officer's Virtual Reality Training that addresses other de-escalation situations and is not limited just to work with the mentally ill. This training follows many of the basic de-escalation approaches noted above (e.g. effective communication, assessment of the scene) but is done through a virtual reality simulator. This model was introduced to the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) at their 126th Annual Conference and Exposition in Chicago, Illinois in October 2019 Military tactics In the military, de-escalation is