Dakota County Newsletter - Spring/Summer 2025 - Our Work - Staying ahead of the curve

SMART Center serves growing number of first responders

Since launching in 2021, a Dakota County facility has played a crucial role in training thousands of first responders in crisisresponse techniques.

The Safety and Mental Health Alternative Response Training (SMART) Center, a 35,000-square-foot facility in Inver Grove Heights, provides training space for the Minnesota Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) and other regional public safety efforts.

The SMART Center features a large, multi-room space for first responders to learn de-escalation techniques that emphasize verbal communication over physical contact with people in crisis.

Before moving to the SMART Center, the CIT program was a mobile service operating out of a trailer that served 525 people in 2019. That number grew by 148 percent in 2023, when 1,304 people received CIT training at the SMART Center.

The SMART Center facility allows CIT staff to create programs that encourage participation, conversation and discovery. The classes help keep officers on track with state training requirements and ahead of the curve for conflict training.

Training at the SMART Center helps our Dakota County Sheriff’s Office deputies and other law enforcement officers learn and practice crisis intervention skills in practical settings — similar to what they encounter on the job. More than 50 agencies have attended CIT training, including departments from around the state.

SMART Center classes include:

• Crisis intervention

• Mental health awareness

• Crisis intervention coaching

• Interactive role-play scenario

Attendees are tested before and after training. In 2024, testing scores of law enforcement officers, corrections officers and social workers who were trained revealed significant gains in mental illness knowledge and de-escalation skills:

• Law enforcement officers increased 34 percent

• Corrections officers increased 25 percent

• Social workers increased 15 percent

The training improves our work on the street. That includes a 2024 incident when an officer who received CIT training at the SMART Center responded to a South St. Paul call involving a juvenile in crisis. Because the officer had learned how to establish a quick rapport with the child, she was able to talk the juvenile out of a dangerous situation and got the help that was needed.

1,304 First responders and others trained at the SMART Center in 2023

50+ Agencies that have trained at the SMART Center

A home to others

The SMART Center is also the home to the Dakota County Electronic Crimes Unit (ECU) and the Dakota County Drug Task Force — two units that needed more space.

The ECU uses shared space to crack cases by accessing seized devices like smartphones and computers. Unit members team up to share information, skills and clues.

Since their cases often intersect, ECU members and drug task force members from local law enforcement agencies work together to connect digital dots and solve crimes.

Those examples of collaboration and innovation helped earn the Sheriff’s Office a public safety award in 2022 for Leaders in Local Government from the St. Paul Area Chamber of Commerce.