The Delaware State Police requested an evidence-based de-escalation that combines social, tactical, and decision-making skills into a unified program. BJA NTTAC referred the request to the Community Oriented Services COPS Office.
On a daily basis, members of Delaware Law Enforcement strive to de-escalate adverse or demanding circumstances. Whether they are issuing a traffic citation to an agitated motorist or attempting to calm a person in crisis, members of the Delaware Law Enforcement community are constantly engaging the public under challenging conditions.
As society continues to increase their expectation on Police Officers to possess almost extraordinary levels of professionalism, patience, and tolerance, Police Officers need to be afforded a training program that provides verbal and physical tools to achieve these things, while simultaneously reducing risk to the officers and those they are attempting to assist.
On behalf of the Delaware State Police, I'm respectfully requesting BJA consider approving a funding request to allow Polis Solutions to train (24) members of the Delaware Law Enforcement community on the concepts of the T3 program.
This training would be offered to key trainers identified by their Departments Executive leadership. Attendees would subsequently be responsible for hosting in-service level training to enhance targeted de-escalation skills within their respective Agencies.
Once trained, attendees will be better positioned to leverage the training to influence the outcome of future incidents in a positive manner. Rather than using force arbitrarily, attendees will be equipped to employ the new tactics to reduce the chance of becoming involved in a violent encounter. The predicted outcome will be a reduction in use of force, officer/suspect injuries and related litigation.
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• Officers need sustained training to learn how to slow confrontations down, instead of ramping up the tension. The immediate outcome will be fewer incidents of force and related injuries.
• According to a variety of studies, disabled individuals make up a third to half of all people killed by law enforcement officers. With this in mind, we must address this concern by developing a training program to de-escalate and manage encounters with special needs or disabled individuals in crisis.
To address these concerns, I have requested the staff at Polis to structure the proposed training with a specific focus on these two key areas. Through this training partnership, I believe Officers will rely less on arresting members of these special populations, used less force and connected more people with mental-health services than their non-trained peers.
If approved, this training will address the described concern in the following areas:
• Those selected to attend will be drawn from a pool of Municipal Officers representing smaller agencies not capable of incurring the training expense. These individuals will be tasked with bringing the training back to their respective agencies to host in-service level instruction.
• Once trained, attendees will be better positioned to leverage the training to influence future incidents in a positive fashion. Rather than using force arbitrarily, attendees will employ the new tactics to reduce the chance of becoming involved in a violent encounter. The predicted outcome will be a reduction in use of force, officer/suspect injuries and related litigation.
• This training will also assist to build and strengthen relationships within the community Anticipated reductions in use of force incidents will complement our existing community outreach efforts by de-escalating negative encounters with community members.
Please submit a signed letter of support from your agency’s executive or other senior staff member. The letter can be emailed to or uploaded with this request. The letter should be submitted on official letterhead and include the following information:
- General information regarding the request for TTA services, i.e., the who, what, where, when, and why.
- The organizational and/or community needs specific to the request for TTA services.
- The benefits or anticipated outcomes from the receipt of TTA services.
By submitting this application to BJA NTTAC, I understand that upon approval of this application for TTA, the requestor agrees to keep BJA NTTAC informed of any circumstances that may impact the delivery of the TTA, including changes in the date of the event, event cancellation, or difficulties communicating with the assigned TTA provider.
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The reviewing committee should be aware Delaware is unique in the fact only (3) Academies are responsible for Recruit level training for the 49 allied Law Enforcement Agencies. This affords the primary trainers for each Department to have a hand in providing entry level training on de-escalation tactics. If funding is approved, each of those principle trainers would be offered an opportunity to attend the T3 course.
Furthermore, it should be noted many of the aforementioned Municipal Departments is staffed with less than 24 Officers. This presents an immediate staffing and funding hurdle the agency must clear before any re-occurring training can be provided. To date, De-escalation has been a neglected training topic for a vast majority of these agencies.
In 2018 and 2019, the Delaware State Police ran annual in-service training targeting scenario based de-escalation practices. Various stations involved the use of de-escalation and traditional police tactics. This integration of skills proved to reinforce the predetermined learning objectives. I believe this training would provide smaller Agencies with the same level of initial instruction and empower their trainers in attendance to bring the concepts and practical training exercises back to their respective Department.