Overview
In recent years, de-escalation training has become a key approach in law enforcement, providing officers with tactics, skills, and tools to better manage interactions with the public. This focus reflects growing community and law enforcement interest in resolving conflicts and handling challenging, often emotionally charged interactions with members of the public more effectively than in the past, particularly when encountering individuals in crisis. Proponents of de-escalation training argue that it equips officers with enhanced skills to resolve conflicts in highly confrontational situations without the use of force or less severe force (Oliva et al., 2010). Others, however, have raised concerns about the use of de-escalation tactics, suggesting that the training increases officers’ risk of injury by encouraging slower and less effective responses to potentially volatile situations than the operational responses of traditional policing (Blake, 2017; Jackman, 2016a; Zaiser et al., 2023).
— Read on www.niskanencenter.org/reassessing-police-de-escalation-training-evidence-gaps-and-policy-priorities/
Tag: De-escalation
De-escalation Training: What Works, Implementation Lessons, and Taking It to Scale; Plenary at the 2023 NIJ Research Conference
There is a video of the panel discussion at the website below.
Police use of force, while infrequently used, is a tremendous concern to public safety in the United States when officers employ it excessively or inappropriately, causing injury or death and eroding public trust in law enforcement. This plenary from the 2023 NIJ Research Conference describes the Integrating, Communications, Assessment, and Tactics (ICAT) de-escalation training program developed by the Police Executive Research Forum to guide officers in defusing critical incidents. A rigorous evaluation of ICAT found it reduced overall use of force as well as injuries to both officers and members of the public. Panelists will describe how research evidence was used to develop the training curriculum; discuss strategies to ensure training implementation fidelity and secure the buy-in of all ranks; describe preliminary findings from complementary NIJ-sponsored replication evaluations; and explore strategies to take ICAT to scale. Led by Karhlton Moore, director of the Bureau of Justice Assistance, the plenary was a discussion among Robin Engel, Ph.D., Senior Vice President, National Policing Institute Maris Herold, Chief, Boulder Police Department, Colorado Chuck Wexler, Executive Director, Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) Justin Witt, Sergeant, Louisville Metro Police Department, Kentucky
— Read on nij.ojp.gov/multimedia/de-escalation-training
Mental health crisis or meth? | Modern Policing
This article reports challenges faced by police when encountering someone behaving erratically — is it a mental health issue or a substance abuse issue? Officers working in areas currently experiencing a surge in meth abuse may find it difficult to tell which cause is behind a person’s behavior. A particular sticking point is that calm…
— Read on gcordner.wordpress.com/2019/11/07/mental-health-crisis-or-meth/
Future of Policing 