The tragic shooting of Terrence Coleman points to the need for police to have quality training and support on how best to respond to people living with mental illness (“A city man dead of police gunfire, with the details in sharp dispute,’’ Page A1, Oct. 31). Crisis Intervention Team training focuses on recognizing the symptoms of mental illness and provides practical skills to de-escalate potentially violent situations. This program has been shown to reduce injuries both to people with mental illness and to police officers.

Currently, police departments must each apply for limited state mental health funding and develop their own training programs. Senate Bill 2320, An Act to Establish a Center of Excellence in Community Policing and Behavioral Health, would create a statewide resource so that every police department in the Commonwealth could access this critically important training.

Every day, police officers are called upon to make split-second decisions that can end in tragedy. While the facts are not yet clear in Coleman’s case, it is in all of our interests to give all police officers the tools they need to maximize the chance that an encounter with a person with mental illness will end peacefully, with the person receiving the help they need.

June S. Binney

Director of criminal justice diversion

National Alliance on Mental Illness of Massachusetts

Boston