Before Defensive Tactics: 5 Training Approaches for LE-Citizen Encounters (Part II)
Police and community tension are driven by a complex set of factors. Some of those are outside of the control of law enforcement, but others are not. The police can influence how they interact with the communities they serve by ensuring all people are treated in a respectful and dignified way. This can be accomplished while maintaining officer safety and the rule of law.
If you haven’t seen Part 1 of this series, check it out before you continue reading this post. In Part I, we focused on procedural justice and implicit bias. In Part II, we are focus on de-escalation training and crisis intervention training.
De-escalation Training
Police come into contact with people in volatile situations. They are legally allowed to use force in many situations – to protect themselves and others.
However, just because a police officer CAN use force, it doesn't mean that they SHOULD. There are methods to reduce the need to use force during an encounter, often called de-escalation.
A Definition
De-escalation often involves slowing down potentially volatile situations and implementing non-coercive solutions.
De-escalation is:
"processes or tactics to prevent, reduce, or manage behaviors associated with conflict – including verbal or physical agitation, aggression, violence or similar behaviors – during an interaction between two or more individuals" (Engel, et al., ND: 6).
But what does de-escalation training entail?
A Training De-escalation Training Program
It involves influencing a subject's perceptions and behaviors to reduce force, violence, aggression, and injury. The Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) has a 40-hour de-escalation training program called ICAT (Integrating Communications, Assessment, and Tactics) training specifically for police officers. It includes:
Critical Decision Making – introduce and explain the critical decision model (CDM) for use by patrol officers managing critical incidents.
Crisis Recognition – basic skills to recognize persons in a behavioral crisis, and basic tips and techniques to defuse critical incidents.
Tactical Communications – active listening and verbal/non-verbal skills for de-escalating situations and gaining voluntary compliance.
Operational Tactics – response to resolve critical incidents involving subjects armed with weapons other than firearms.
Integration & Practice – scenario-based training and video case studies to integrate course skills.
Critics of de-escalation training argue that some approaches may run counter to the needs of officer safety due to a need to quickly react to threatening situations.
Research and Resources
The ICAT Training was recently subject to an in-depth evaluation. Researchers found that officers had positive perceptions of the ICAT training, supported its value, reported improved attitudes to the use of force, and 60% of officers reported using IACT techniques within the two month period prior to the survey. More importantly, researchers also found a significant reduction in use of force, citizen injuries, and officer injuries due to the training.
De-escalation training resources relate to ICAT are included below:
Crisis Intervention Training
Law enforcement comes into frequent contact with Persons with Mental Illness (PMI). These interactions are complex and can result in injury and death to both the PMI and the officer. There is also an overpopulation of PMI in the criminal justice system. Diversion from jails and the formal criminal justice system is therefore important.
Responding officers often lack clarity as to the root cause of a person in crisis. A person may be experiencing a traumatic event, intoxicated, suffering from a mental illness, or all of these things combined. A responding officer may not necessarily know what they are dealing with when arriving on scene and have to determine why a crisis is occurring.
Modes of Response
How officers respond to encounters involving PMI’s is often dependent on their agency’s policy. Three models have been established for how a police organization handles these encounters.
Police officer-based response – sworn officers received specialized training;
Police-based civilian responders – specially trained civilian mental health personnel work with officers in the field; and
Mobile crisis units – a specially trained entity responding in coordination with police in the field - often this unit is operated by a health department.
Here, we are going to focus on crisis intervention training for police officers.
CIT Training for Officers
The CIT Model is an approach developed in Memphis, TN, after a fatal shooting involving a person with a mental illness. It is a long-standing approach to reduce injuries and death during encounters between police officers and PMI.
The 40-hour University of Tennessee National Crisis Intervention Training curriculum includes:
Signs and symptoms of mental illness on a range of populations and types of disorders and mental illness (e.g. Schizophrenia, ADD, Impulse Control Disorders, Autism, Cognitive Disorders, PTSD).
Substance Abuse and Co-occurrence with Mental illness (combined mental disorder and alcohol or drug use disorder).
Leveraging community support and identifying community dynamics related to persons with mental illness (such as homelessness or veteran's related issues).
Law Enforcement policy, liability, and related topics.
Site visits to community locations such as mental health facilities, homeless shelters, to talk to and interact with people with mental illness.
De-escalation Scenario Based Skills Training-focused on on-scene crisis intervention.
Research and Resources
Researchers have studied the impact of CIT on a variety of outcomes. The findings of this research are mixed. Crisis Intervention Training was broadly found to positively support officer specific outcomes (e.g., officer satisfaction and perceived reductions in force used), increased pre-booking diversion from jails, but the benefits on injuries and use of force are less clear (Rogers, et al., 2019). Despite the lack of information on outcomes, these evaluations of officer specific outcomes and diversions are positive.
Crisis Intervention Training resources and curriculum are included below.
Interconnected Approaches
There is no doubt overlap between these approaches and techniques – they may all also be relevant in a single encounter. An officer may utilize techniques to counter implicit-bias and procedural justice at the start of a stop, realize they are dealing with a violent situation that requires de-escalation, then help a person access mental health treatment after a volatile situation is de-escalated.
Our Structured Observation Framework
These training programs are nuanced, complex, and people dedicate their entire careers to them. One of the reasons why I wrote this post is to identify how our observation approaches "fit" into these other programs.
In order to de-escalate a volatile situation, officers must first be able to gauge the potential danger a situation may pose to officers and the public. Trying to predict future behavior is the first step in this process.
But how do we predict future behavior? Through systematic observation and assessment.
Second Sight's systematic observation allows first responders the skills to assess situations for potential threats. Once potential threats are identified they can be addressed through tactics such as de-escalation."
Benefits of Structured Observation
This approach can help officers:
Establish a baseline and more objectively identify persons who may be a true threat;
Identify meaningful deviations, such as weapons carrying or signs of a likely attack, allowing preemptive steps to control a situation and reduce the use of force;
Interpret ambiguous behaviors by focusing on their frequency and intensity, learning to make more objective decisions rather than relying on appearance or intuition;
Apply a culturally and racially neutral methodology, evaluating subjects based on behavior, not appearance;
Communicate what they've observed clearly and consistently, both in the moment and afterward in a report, using a shared vocabulary.
By being more aware of possible behavior-based threats and able to articulate them clearly, officers can more easily use other de-escalation methods.
Training Courses
Second Sight offers structured observation and visual threat detection training for law enforcement. Visit our law enforcement page to learn more.
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Addressing the Elephant in the Room. (2018, November 28). Police Chief Magazine. https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/addressing-the-elephant-in-the-room/
Engel, R. S., McManus, H. D., & Herold, T. D. (N.D.). The Deafening Demand for De-escalation Training: A Systematic Review and Call for Evidence in Police Use of Force Reform. 69.
Engel, R. S., Corsaro, N., Isaza, G. T., & McManus, H. D. (2020). Examining the Impact of Integrating Communications, Assessment, and Tactics (ICAT) De-escalation Training for the Louisville Metro Police Department: Initial Findings (p. 131). University of Cincinnati.
Esquievel, J., Feffeira, A., Hayes, M., Hendson, T., Lipman, B., & Patterson, D. (N.D.). Facilitator Guide—A Tactical Mindset: Procedural Justice and Police Legitimacy (PJ2). Chicago Police Department. https://trustandjustice.org/resources/guide/procedural-justice-and-police-legitimacy-pj1-facilitators-guide
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Rogers, M. S., McNiel, D. E., & Binder, R. L. (2019). Effectiveness of Police Crisis Intervention Training Programs. The Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, 47(4), 8.
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