Meet Eric

Eric Pisconski retired as a Lieutenant with the Seattle Police Department, where he oversaw the Directed Outreach Section, including the Crisis Response Unit (CRU) and Homeless Outreach Group. He also served as the Department’s Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) Coordinator, responsible for implementing, managing, and sustaining all aspects of Seattle PD’s crisis intervention and de-escalation programs.

During his tenure, Lt. Pisconski served as a subject matter expert (SME) on the Department’s Force Review Board, specializing in crisis intervention, tactical de-escalation, and the intersection of force applications. Previously, he spent five years as Sergeant of the Crisis Response Team (CRT), a co-responder program pairing sworn officers with licensed mental health professionals to support patrol operations and provide follow-up in both criminal and non-criminal cases involving behavioral health concerns. CRT also tailored individualized response plans and pursued Extreme Risk Protection Orders (ERPOs) for individuals meeting statutory criteria. The Crisis Response Unit reviewed more than 10,000 cases annually.

Eric has been actively involved in crisis intervention policing since 2007 and was assigned as the Department’s lead for Crisis and De-Escalation training in 2014. He served as a lead instructor and curriculum developer for tactical de-escalation and officer approaches to interacting with persons in crisis, including courses delivered nationally through the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) sponsored VALOR program and training for the FBI Seattle Field Office.

His expertise has informed policy and practice at the state and national levels. Eric served on Washington State’s Safer Homes – Suicide Aware Task Force and acted as a subject matter expert for multiple state legislative forums. He has presented at the National Co-Responder Conference, CIT International Conference, NAMI national conferences, and the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) ICAT seminars. Additionally, he has served as a moderator for the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission’s Basic Law Enforcement Academy Crisis Intervention program and for FBI Hostage Negotiator training.

Since 2014, Eric has facilitated training on crisis response, de-escalation, and use-of-force decision-making for thousands of officers across hundreds of agencies nationwide.

Following his retirement from law enforcement, Eric spent three and a half years with Starbucks as a member of the Behavioral Threat Assessment Board (TAB). In this role, he conducted behavioral threat and risk assessments related to workplace violence and life-safety concerns across the United States and Canada. He provided strategic guidance, mitigation strategies, and resources to internal stakeholders managing high-risk incidents. Eric also developed a comprehensive TAB operations manual, investigative protocols, case investigation reports (CIRs), and enterprise-level training resources addressing suicidal and homicidal ideation, threats and behaviors of concern, weapon possession, physical and sexual assaults, and domestic violence support.

http://www.linkedin.com/in/eric-pisconski