Thompson

Destiny Thompson
Professor Elizabeth Cuddy
Written Communications 101-14
16 November 2016
The Benefits of Police De-escalation Training

The United States Police force is trained to shoot first and ask questions later. Police
officers may legitimately employ deadly force when someone poses a clear and imminent
danger to citizens or officers, but many fatal police shootings involve reasonable questions
about whether this standard was met. According to Malcolm D. Holmes from US. News.
Lethal shootings of unarmed civilians along with mental ill citizens have been a major issue in
the United States mainly because officers are trained to shoot when they believe that their
lives are in danger and officers are not fully equipped with training on how to deal with
civilians that suffer from mental illness. The way our country trains its officers is a problem
and the best solution is to create an alternative for deadly force and equip officers with de
escalation training which will teach officers how to read people and defuse high tense
situations along with identifying and providing mental ill people with the proper treatment.
Deadly force is not a good tactic because deaths of innocent people could be avoided if
officers are given alternatives. Recent police shootings of unarmed suspects have brought to
bear harsh criticism of law enforcement use of deadly force. According to Perkins, James,
and Martin Bourgeois. The way officers are being trained is an issue, and each state should
put in place a mandatory de-escalation training for all police officers along with redesigning
the way officers are trained to engage with the public.

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Officers are not doctors and in unfortunate situations they do not know how to

identify someone that suffers from mental illness. According to Horace Ellis, In
communities across the United States and internationally, police officers frequently come into
contact with individuals experiencing mental health crisis despite not having the skills to
safely intervene. This often results in officers resorting to excessive or even deadly force. If
officers were equipped with the skills to identify the issue when in contact with a civilian then
officers will be able to defuse high tense situations and save lives.
Although it may sometimes seem as if it is impossible to change the mindset of others,
there is still light at the end of the tunnel due to the fact that everything is learned and all we
must do as a country is teach the opposite and we can start by changing the way our police
officers are trained. There are a number of reasons police In the United States are constantly
killing so many unarmed black and Latinos, and One of the main reasons is because officers
are not properly trained on how to separate their personal beliefs about people back at home
and not carry that knowledge with them to work. Finally, the degree of bias shown
by police officers toward Blacks was related to contact, attitudes, and stereotypes. According
to Melody Sadler. There are officers patrolling communities with people that they are not
familiar with and this leads to racial tension. When white officers go into black communities
with a mindset that every black person they see is somewhat guilty, puts the life of every
person of color at risk.

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Officers are trained to use deadly force if they believe that their lives are in
danger. Now this tactic seems very logical due to the fact it may seem like self
defense to react to a threat but when you automatically go into a situation with a
with your mind already made up about the fact whether an individual is guilty or
not of course there will be a large number in unjustified moral shootings. In order
to fix this significant issue, officers need to have some sort of sensitivity training
and obtain more knowledge on how to work with citizens that they are unfamiliar
with. There are already some forces across the country that supports the idea of
de-escalation training. According to Timothy Williams from Times Magazine,
Officers at police academies have always been trained in de-escalation,
but there has been less emphasis on such methods over the past 20 years. A recent
Police Executive Research Forum survey of 281 police agencies found that the
average young officer received 58 hours of firearms training and 49 hours of
defensive tactical training, but only eight hours of de-escalation training.
The way to fix this issue is by using preventative measures such as
redesigning the training in police academies. By redesigning how officers are
trained this will put officers out on the street with a different mindset and allow
them to create a better bond with communities instead of having the public
scared of the people that are paid and sworn to protect them. The public needs to
know that in situations as simple as receiving traffic ticket that their lives arent
being put at harm by officers.

Despite completing de-escalation training, Shelby "reacted unreasonably" when she fatally
shot 40-year-old Terence Crutcher on Sept. 16, according to an affidavit prosecutors filed with

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the first-degree manslaughter charge. Shelby, who posted bond early Friday, faces four years
to life in prison if convicted. According to Sean Murphy.

The training that officers received isnt enough that is why our government must create
a more beneficial training in academies across the country. The United States government
must enforce the training and If police academies to not comply with the training then they
should not receive any funding for the government until they meet certain training
requirements, such as longer training hours on how to deal with mental illness and getting rid
of bias mindsets.

Although lately all media publicize the killings of blacks there is also a major issue with
officers not knowing how to identify and handle mental illness. Because police involved
shootings with unarmed and mental ill citizens have become such a huge issue in the
United States the countries government must enforce de-escalation training on the
academies due to the fact the shootings are rooted at officers not really knowing how to
approach and deal with people that they are unfamiliar with. The way that this
requirement should be enforced is by creating a prop for citizens to vote on so that the
state can take funding from something that is not as beneficial to the people and put it
towards trainings for officers and if voters vote for the prop all of the training will
become a requirement for all academies.

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Bibliography

By SEAN MURPHY and JUSTIN JUOZAPAVICIUS. "Tulsa Officer Late to Career, Had
De-escalation Training." The Big Story. N.p., 24 Sept. 2016. Web. 21 Nov. 2016.
Ellis, Horace A. "Effects Of A Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) Training Program Upon Police
Officers Before And After Crisis Intervention Team Training." Archives Of Psychiatric
Nursing (Science Direct) 28.1 (2014): 10-16. E-Journals. Web. 21 Nov. 2016.
Holmes, Malcom D. "What's Really Behind Plague of Fatal Police Shootings of ..." US.News.
N.p., 9 Sept. 2016. Web. 21 Nov. 2016.
Lowery, Wesley. "Arent More White People Killed by Police? Yes but No." Washington
Post. N.p., 11 July 2016. Web. 20 Nov. 2016.
Perkins, James, and Martin Bourgeois. "Perceptions Of Police Use Of Deadly Force." Journal
Of Applied Social Psychology 36.1 (2006): 161-177. E-Journals. Web. 20 Nov. 2016.
Sadler, Melody S., et al. "The World Is Not Black And White: Racial Bias In The Decision To
Shoot In A Multiethnic Context." Journal Of Social Issues 68.2 (2012): 286-313. E-Journals.
Web. 21 Nov. 2016.
Williams, Timothy. "Long Taught to Use Force, Police Warily Learn to De-escalate." The
New York Times. The New York Times, 27 June 2015. Web. 21 Nov. 2016.