My name is Jennifer Crites and I am one of the co-chairs to the Officer Safety & Wellness Committee and I am also on the Executive Board as the Region 2 representative for IPCSA.

Some may or may not have heard of NRCT (Natural Response Control Tactics).  NRCT is a week long training that teaches officers self defense techniques using natural movement. This training allows the attending officers to return to their jurisdiction to teach level 1 NRCT. Being able to train your own department on site can greatly reduce the overall cost per officer for your department. Currently there are eight Probation Officers in the State of Illinois who are certified as a NRCT instructors and looking at a recertification.  Along that line, there are about nine Probation Officers who are looking at being certified as NRCT instructors. The maximum number of students for this training is 30. As the number of trainees increases the overall cost will decrease per student as we are charged a flat rate for the Instructor to be here for the week.

The dates of the training are October 16-20, 2023 located at ILEAS in Urbana, IL.  Certification is a week long process and will take place at ILEAS located in Urbana, IL.  Once one is certified in NRCT, they will then need to get recertified every three years.  Recertification is only three days.  The benefit of being certified as a NRCT instructor is not only knowing and learning self defense techniques, but also in the hope of doing trainings in their home county/region/jurisdictions and also possibly be trainers for a class at conference.

Participants of NRCT will also have the availability to partake in OC Spray.  OC Spray is a 2.0 – 2.5 hour course that will be done in the evening of two days.  To be an instructor for OC Spray, all one would have to do is submit to a written test.  

If you are interested, please contact Jennifer Crites at jcrites@champaigncountyil.gov or 217-384-3753.