Washington State

Jennifer Wallace, Program Manager – Sexual Assault Investigations for the WA State Criminal Justice Training Commission describes the following:

Since November 2018, the WA CJTC has integrated the Community Resiliency Model (CRM)® into its Sexual Assault Investigation training program as a set of wellness skills to aid the nervous system regulation of victims and the officers conducting these sensitive, intensive interviews. Sexual assault investigators and patrol officers who take the class are taught four of the CRM wellness skills; Tracking, Resourcing, Grounding, and Help/Reset*Now! as part of the victim interview practice exercises. During these interactions with professional actors portraying victims of sexual assault, officers are encouraged to experiment with the wellness skills as part of this exercise and to continue practicing the skills in their lives beyond the training.

(*Help Now! was changed to Reset Now! for the police population since the word “help” typically holds such negative associations.)

CRM is first introduced to course participants through a pre-course assessment that directs them to the CRM app and asks various related questions (about themselves and the skills). Later in the course, officers are provided with another overview of the skills in the context of these potentially dysregulating interviews with victims and offered a chance to practice the skills with their interview facilitators and subsequently the actor-victims, all of whom are familiar with the skills. Class participants are also encouraged to attend the optional officer resiliency section of the class on the final morning and the CRM Booster Sessions scheduled for the last Thursday of every month. Facilitators are also encouraged to attend additional CRM® Booster Sessions and trainings. 

The Sexual Assault Investigations program at CJTC currently includes 9 CRM Trainers and 4 therapists who have been trained in the Trauma Resiliency Model (TRM)®. We anticipate adding 2 additional CRM trainers next month as we build a CRM Basic and Advanced, Resiliency-Informed Community Policing, training program with the Trauma Resource Institute. Through our collaborations and this training, CJTC and TRI aspire to jointly train police and communities in the CRM skills.

 To date, 13 sexual assault investigations courses have been administered, training over 250 officers from around WA in the use of these skills. Almost 200 Advocates and 50 Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners in Washington State have also received training on the CRM skills.

 We regularly receive feedback that the CRM skills – especially Grounding – are a key takeaway from this dense course.