Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) training and impact on mental illness and substance use-related stigma among law enforcement

•Crisis Intervention Team trainings offer opportunities to address stigma•Knowledge of communication strategies was found to be correlated with lower levels of substance use stigma•Increased self-efficacy post-training was associated with lower levels of mental illness and substance use stigma•Awareness of community resources was related to decreased mental illness and substance use stigma after training•Additional training content on bias and substance use disorders may be beneficial Limited empirical data and research exists about stigmatizing attitudes and perceptions held by law enforcement officers towards persons with mental illness and substance use issues. Pre- and post-training survey data from 92 law enforcement personnel who attended a 40-hour Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) training was used to investigate training-related changes in mental illness stigma and substance use stigma. Training participant's mean age was 38.35 ± 9.50 years, majority white non-Hispanic race/ethnicity (84.2%), male gender (65.2%), and reported job category as road patrol (86.9%). Pre-training, 76.1% endorsed at least one stigmatizing attitude towards people with mental illness, and 83.7% held a stigmatizing attitude towards those with substance use problems. Poisson regression revealed that working road patrol (RR=0.49, p