A research project shows that law-enforcement officers working for agencies with de-escalation policies are far more likely to killed or injured in the line of duty.
News 3 reports that the study looked at metropolitan law enforcement agencies around the country; some have de-escalation policies while others do not. It used data from more than 75,000 officers over a five-year period.
“The agencies without de-escalation policies, the number of officers killed and assaulted were dramatically lower than the agencies with de-escalation policies in place,” said Brian Landers, author of the study.
Landers, a former police officer, is chair of the criminal justice department of Madison College.
Landers says that de-escalation is a very valuable tool for law enforcement officers but it cannot take priority over officer safety.
He found that an officer working in a de-escalation agency, was twice as likely to be killed in the line of duty and 10 times more likely to be injured in the line of duty.
Law Officer Editor In Chief says that the term “de-escalation” is one of the most abused and misunderstood terms in policing today.
“People think that if law enforcement trains and practices de-escalation that somehow use of force will just stop and what they forget is that it takes two parties to de-escalate. Law enforcement has been training and implementing de-escalation for decades and use of force has remained because some in the public refuses to de-escalate,” Yates said.
Yates calls for a “common sense” approach to de-escalation that does not place police officers in more harm than they already are.
You can read the full report here.
