In August of 2023, in the Village of Tangipahoa, a small Louisiana community close to the Mississippi border, 36 officers from 15 law enforcement agencies were surprised to learn the most common and easily avoidable mistakes that cause loss of community trust and lawsuits.

This was one of the lessons of an innovative three-day training program called Confident Non-Escalation: Street-Level De-Escalation for Patrol Officers and Supervisors, which many attendees said was “a real eye-opener.” Developed and taught by Don McCrea, the President of Premier Police Training and an expert in constitutional policing, the training prompted insights into the reasons why some officer interactions with civilians needlessly escalate and lead to unlawful stops, arrests, and force.

Training Based on Procedural Justice

Designed to provide the critical skills that enable officers to gain voluntary compliance, Confident Non-Escalation differs from traditional de-escalation training in important ways. It is a proactive policing approach focused on the prevention of escalation through behavioral techniques as well as knowledge of the laws that support police authority.

By basing the training on procedural justice and ensuring that officers and supervisors know current case law for stops, frisks, arrests, and force, Confident Non-Escalation training minimizes unlawful actions, improves decision-making, and bolsters officer self-confidence.

In McCrea’s words, “Law enforcement officers are much more effective at handling situations when they confidently, respectfully, and fairly apply their lawful authority.”

The three-day training was a pilot program provided to two Mississippi officers as well as participants from 14 Louisiana law enforcement entities. The Tangipahoa Police Department (TPD) hosted the training with funding support from a U.S. Department of Justice Office of Community Policing Services (COPS Office) grant for Training and Technical Assistance.

According to Dr. Vincent Jemison, a law enforcement consultant and former deputy with the East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office, who was instrumental in applying for the grant and coordinating the program’s logistics, TPD Chief Darrel Martin was concerned about the growing number of negative police encounters capturing headlines across the country.

Said Jemison, “Chief Martin was aware of the impact of these encounters, the lawsuits, loss of community trust, and damage to the reputation of these agencies and the law enforcement profession itself. And he sought a way to prevent disrespectful behavior as well as unlawful use of force by his officers.”

A Small-Town Pilot with Statewide Applications

Dr. Jemison added, “We believed that the Village of Tangipahoa was a good place to hold a pilot program for this training due to its size, which made it easier to organize and observe the effects on the community. But the goal is to expand Confident Non-Escalation training to cover the entire state of Louisiana, doing so on a regional basis to make it easily accessible.”

To attract attendees from other law enforcement agencies, Jemison enlisted the help of Brett Kriger. A retired U.S. Air Force pilot and security police officer who is the Louisiana Municipal Association (LMA) Deputy Director for Disaster Recovery, Kriger promoted the training through the LMA.

Said Kriger, “The municipalities were interested because of concern about legal liability. When officers go into situations, their adrenaline goes up and bad things can happen. Civic leaders want cops to have de-escalation skills, to learn how to do conflict resolution, which is not part of standard police training.”

According to Dr. Jemison, “Confident Non-Escalation teaches things many of us in law enforcement were never told or learned, and the emphasis here is on avoiding escalation altogether by maintaining a calm, confident, lawful approach to all interactions.”

Kriger, who attended the opening session of the training himself said, “Nobody in this group had had de-escalation training in the past seven to 10 years, and they all want to continue it.” The TPD chief, one of his officers, and Dr. Jemison attended a train-the-trainer program presented by Premier Police Training in Rapid City, South Dakota. This was an opportunity to improve TPD's internal training capability for de-escalation.

Focus on Preventing and Managing Escalation

According to McCrea, a former law enforcement officer and police academy instructor, de-escalation training is important, but it is reactive in nature and doesn’t address officer-induced escalation, which his research indicates is the cause of most lawsuits against officers and agencies. He resolved to develop a program that was more focused on prevention and based on knowledge of the law.

“I created Confident Non-Escalation,” McCrea said, “to solve a serious problem that was eroding support for law enforcement and causing community unrest but wasn’t being addressed. I saw it in hundreds of YouTube videos, where officers were acting unlawfully. Many probably didn’t realize it, but they were.”

McCrea continued, “In reviewing police reports, talking to chiefs and sheriffs, and doing research, I learned that the main things that led to lawsuits were unlawful stops and detentions, unlawful or false arrests, and unreasonable or excessive force. I realized that these officers were not being trained in procedural justice and case law or learning behavioral techniques to avoid escalation.”

Lastly, McCrea added, “While most officers want to perform their duties properly, unlawful acts are costing too many officers their careers and causing community unrest. Officer-induced escalation, which is usually based on misapplication of the law, is a primary cause of eroding support for law enforcement.”

Dr. Jemison, who has done extensive research on perception-based decision-making, agreed that when officers aren’t trained to base their decisions on case law, they often rely on their own perceptions to enforce the laws they were hired to enforce, which can lead to disastrous results. “Officers need to understand that the authority they have is based on case law and other laws,” he said.

Critical Skills for Gaining Voluntary Compliance

McCrea emphasizes that officers must be confident and fair in exercising their lawful authority, saying that this is key to obtaining voluntary compliance. According to the feedback he has gotten over the years, it works.

Said McCrea, “We presented this training for the first time in Wyoming in 2021, and officers said this training is a game changer. Since then, we have trained local, state, federal, and tribal agencies in various states. The number one thing I hear is ‘I’ve been in law enforcement for many years and didn’t know half of this stuff.’ Officers also tell me stories, saying ‘I thought I was doing things right, I’m just fortunate I wasn’t sued’.”

Among those who attended the training was Frederick Thomas, the Commander of the East Baton Rouge (EBR) Scotland Substation and past President of NOBLE (National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives) from 2021 to 2022, who brought five officers along with him.

Commenting on the need for the Confident Non-Escalation training, Thomas said, “Though our officers got training in the past, they received no additional training on the use of force and procedural justice. So, I invited five co-workers to attend with me. They learned things they said they didn’t know before and thanked me afterward. Everybody in law enforcement needs this training.”

Images courtesy of Dr. Vincent Jemison.

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