California Police Chief- Fall 2013 CPCA_2019_Spring Magazine- FINAL | Page 32

DE-ESCALATION
AND
THE
ADVANCED OFFICER TRAINING PROGRAM
By Lieutenant Christian Le Moss
The Santa Cruz Police department, like many agencies in California, gave officers Critical Incident Training (CIT) and
exposed them to de-escalation training and tools. Yet, at 0300 hours when commanding officers are sound asleep, patrol
officers are confronting a mentally ill man hearing only the demons in his head, waving a knife wildly. As leaders we
need the confidence each officer is safe, well equipped, and trained to handle this incident.
Chief Mills and I talked about our
ability to reduce the potential for officer
involved shootings. As we talked,
one of the opportunities for reducing
potential Officer Involved Shootings
(OIS) are those people in crisis who
are not capable of being talked down.
There must be more than just talk
and empathy provided by CIT. I was
tasked to provide training that ensured
each officer was adequately trained to
tactically de-escalate these problems.
My focus became giving officers an
opportunity to de-escalate using Time-
Talk and Tactics.
We had previously trained in de-
escalation concepts such as small team
tactics, use of verbal de-escalation,
and less lethal tools were standard.
What we lacked was how the
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concept of de-escalation was viewed
organizationally; how incidents
are investigated, documented, and
recognized within our department.
Like us, most law enforcement
agencies run their training programs
in a very compartmentalized format.
Tactical de-escalation brings all
these training concepts together, a
more thorough and robust training
experience. The goal was to elicit a
comprehensive response to incidents
from officers. For example, an officer
is put under stress and then asked to
communicate using empathy, active
listening skills, while simultaneously
coordinating a tactical response.
My training and experience
solely focused on the de-escalation
of incidents and analyzing and
debriefing use of force encounters.
We made suggestions to implement
change where appropriate. Police
agencies proficient in de-escalation
tactics are the ones that take time to
analyze their incidents. In doing so,
officers become better critical thinkers,
and willing to adjust their tactics
based on feedback. This does not
seem common in policing. Officers
that engage in this feedback and
adjustment loop are more proficient
and may take fewer lives exposing
themselves and the departments to
less liability exposure.
After looking at our training
programs and thinking of various
strategies on how to best implement
De-escalation Training into In-Service
Training, I determined the following: