De-escalation is the PROCESS of using STRATEGIES and TECHNIQUES intended to decrease the intensity of an escalating situation.
Keeping communities safe and enhancing officer skills and safety is of paramount importance for law enforcement, thus there is an ever-growing emphasis on the continued need to leverage de-escalation tactics. How law enforcement officers perform this obligation and how their actions are perceived by the community sets the foundation of their legitimacy in the eyes of the public. Focusing on this need for de-escalation will help facilitate trust within the community and reduce violent physical encounters.
De-escalation is not new, and officers have used it in its many forms since policing started. De-escalation saves lives and careers every year, but with complex and ever-changing societal conditions, law enforcement must evolve, grow and adapt to do it better today than they did yesterday.
OMAG has two Law Enforcement Specialist that have been Providing De-Escalation Training since 2008 with the use of a Shooting Simulator. In 2018 they expanded De-Escalation training by adding ICAT (Integrating Communications Assessment and Tactics) training. Since 2018 after providing ICAT training we have seen a positive change in how officers react to handling subjects who may have a mental disorder or subjects in crises when using the Shooting Simulator.
If your police department is interested in hosting the ICAT De-Escalation Training or the shooting simulator at your department or in your region please contact Billy Carter at wcarter@omag.org or Kevin McCullough at kmccullough@omag.org for additional information.
