Tactical De-Escalation: What it is / is not
What does Tactical De-escalation mean, and how does it apply?
Lt. Eric Pisconski (Ret) / Seattle Police Department
Tac-D Solutions – Founder
How does de-escalation align with police tactics?
Law enforcement tactics cover a variety of topics. While every agency has their own policies, procedures and training regiments, basic core tenets and best practices such as Time, Distance, and Shielding, Contact & Cover, or Exposure vs Effectiveness tend to be woven throughout. Good training employs reality-based scenarios and follows the principle of creating tactical thinkers, rather than trying to provide a codex for every possible scenario.
De-escalation is just another tool in the toolbox for law enforcement. Responding to calls for service, or on-viewing incidents, requires a Swiss-army knife approach. Am I running code? Time to lean into my EVOC skills. Is this a domestic dispute? Officer safety combined with interviewing. Bank robbery in-progress? Team tactics and range days. You get the idea.
As discussed in a previous article, de-escalation is merely the use of words and actions to reduce a heightened emotional and physical state, with the goal of facilitating a calm, rational interaction.
Law enforcement should use de-escalation as a tool when they recognize a person’s state of behavioral escalation prevents effective communication and objective problem-solving. Officers should attempt de-escalation only when it is safe to do so. De-escalation is a component of police response options, and like other response options, it is appropriate and effective in specific situations.
Always ensure you, other officers, bystanders and the subject are safe from immediate harm before attempting de-escalation. De-escalation is not a reasonable alternative to necessary force.
It’s all about tone
For de-escalation and/or escalation prevention, an officer’s tone can make a huge difference. Tones that can be perceived as officious, disrespectful, or indifferent can dictate the outcome. An officer can use the exact same words with different tones and create a sense of comfort or aggravation on behalf of the listener / receiver.
Remember, every interaction that an individual has with an officer will influence all future contacts with police. This approach can be a key factor of increasing officer safety for both you and fellow officers.
While many facilities have medical and psychiatric staff on-site, jail is about the least helpful place for someone in a mental health crisis to get stabilized. Many people with mental illness have been previously jailed, were victimized at that time and are very afraid of police and the jail system as a result. This absolutely influences their behavior around police officers.
Recognizing Escalation
The perception of fear triggers automatic responses – this is not a good guy or bad guy phenomenon; this is a human condition. The perception can be fear of physical danger, embarrassment, negative consequences, abandonment, “loss of face” or other major or seemingly minor consequences. The automatic response is described as psychophysical arousal, meaning that our brains, emotions and bodies began working at heightened levels of performance.
When a situation is perceived as dangerous or having major negative consequences, a part of our brain called the amygdala initiates a response by stimulating brain chemicals that increase performance for survival. Observable effects of fear-induced psychophysical arousal often resemble ‘pre-attack indicators’ or signs of drug abuse.
As with any evaluation of behavior, we look for the totality of factors to judge whether the person is in a significantly escalated state. Psychophysical arousal promotes rapid, intuitive reaction to potential risks – deliberate, logical thought is disfavored. We know from brain scans that when experiencing fear, brain activity in the areas of the brain responsible for objective reasoning significantly decreases.
A fear response makes constructive communication and problem-solving very difficult, if not impossible. Once an officer recognizes a person is experiencing a fear response or is in a heightened emotional state, they should consider employing de-escalation techniques prior to expecting any complex problem-solving by a subject.
What does “tactical” de-escalation really mean?
Tactical De-Escalation merely combines the two principles of police tactics and de-escalation; providing tools and techniques to recognize and navigate crisis situations. There is no 100% guaranteed approach to ensure every encounter is successfully de-escalated. Implementing the strategies of tactical de-escalation will ensure that practitioners have the tools available to mitigate emotionally charged situations in a safe manner.
Everything in your response, from arrival to resolution, is inclusive of Tactical De-Escalation. It includes a strong officer presence, appropriate team and individual tactics and approach – to include the implementation of Time, Distance, and Shielding principles, threat assessment and identification, and verbal engagement.
