We’ve seen how law enforcement reacts to stressful situations before. In some instances, they show compassion. But sometimes, they use so much force that it becomes a concern for human rights violations.
But how do they know when and how to react to crises like those? Believe it or not, they’re often carefully planned out and strategized.
Michael Troelstrup discusses the de-escalation tactics that law enforcement must consider and execute – and why they must do so.
What to Avoid in Times of Crisis
Law enforcement promotes peace and order – but there’s no guarantee it will remain that way 100% of the time.
And when a crisis occurs, law enforcement will prioritize civilians’ safety above everything. However, it’s often challenging for them when an individual is endangering the lives of others.
To prevent this, law enforcement officers often avoid provoking the individual from causing harm (or more harm) – as they’re most likely already agitated and intimidated.
Moreover, law enforcement officials do this to calm down the individual to subdue them more easily – they typically de-escalate the situation in various ways.
Common De-Escalation Tactics
When a person poses a threat to others or themselves, a law enforcement officer’s job is to prevent them from committing harm to anyone.
Some of these tactics include:
Showing Empathy
People on the verge of suicide understandably need more empathy – and this is what law enforcement officials typically do: show compassion towards the desperate individual.
Officials know that these people need not another person to tell them that their plan is wrong – to these people, a series of mistakes already led them to believe everything they did in their lives was wrong.
But this also applies to active shooters and hostage-takers. Most of them are in desperate situations – and sometimes, all it takes is one word or phrase (that they’ll perceive as judgemental or condescending) for them to commit violence.
However, people need more than passive understanding – law enforcement must also actively communicate.
Communicating Correctly
More often than not, people who commit crimes (or plan to) have their reasons. In their mind, it’s justifiable. Needless to say, to level-headed civilians, it obviously won’t appear that way – and all law enforcement organizations would agree.
However, in stressful situations, law enforcement must prioritize calming the assailant – they communicate with them through active listening; they must appear sympathetic and supportive of the person.
Once they establish a common ground, they try luring the assailant to surrender.
Providing Assailants Their Requests
Sometimes, assailants will request mundane things to mere impossible ones. Nonetheless, law enforcement will still provide what they can – hoping it will get the assailant to surrender.
However, these requests often come with deals. They often employ a negotiator to trade their appeal for them to surrender – or at least set free the people in danger.
Somewhere along the process, however, law enforcement officials are strategizing on how to subdue the individual. If the person doesn’t willingly surrender, they either tackle or execute the person. Still, it depends on the situation and the level of threat the person poses.
Conclusion
The phrase, “Desperate times call for desperate measures,” seems applicable to crisis intervention – as law enforcement officials constantly sacrifice their reputation in the hopes that all civilians will go unharmed.
Keep in mind that in no way will law enforcement favor a criminal. Sometimes, they have to appear that they do – for everyone’s safety.