New group being trained for Crisis Response Team

Seventy-four people are undergoing training in Des Moines this week to join the Iowa Crisis Response Team. Alison Whall is the spokesperson for the Attorney General’s Crime Victim Assistance Division which handles the training and development of the team.She says the team is set up to help communities across Iowa deal with crime-related incidents. The 74 are undergoing 40 hours of training where they’re learning about group crisis intervention, crisis reaction, emotional responses to problems and how to organize a team. She says the new group of trainees will beef up the team.They’ll be added to the 60 people already trained for the job. The team is trained to respond to help after a crime such as a school shooting. But, Whall says they’re versatile and can respond to natural disasters and bad accidents.The new group members come from all over the state and will be in training through the rest of this week.