New Workplace Violence training requirements will present challenges for California employers

California's Senate Bill 533, signed into law on September 30, 2023, by Governor Gavin Newsom, introduces comprehensive workplace violence prevention requirements for employers in the state. Here's a summary of the training requirements and other key aspects of the law:

Training Requirements

Employee Training: The law mandates specific training for employees, which must be interactive, allowing for questions and answers. This training should be tailored to the educational level, literacy, and language of the employees. All employees must receive this training no later than July 1, 2024, and then annually thereafter​​.

Training Content: The training should cover several aspects, including how to obtain a copy of the workplace violence prevention plan (WVPP), participation in its implementation and development, reporting workplace violence, and specific violence hazards in the workplace. It should also provide guidance on seeking assistance in responding to or avoiding workplace violence and avoiding physical harm​​.

Challenges for Employers

Developing training compliant with California's SB 553 presents several challenges for employers, primarily due to the comprehensive and specific nature of the law's requirements. Here are some of the key challenges:

1. Customization to Employee Needs: The law requires that the training be appropriate to the educational level, literacy, and language of the employees​​. This means employers must tailor their training programs to a diverse workforce, which can be logistically challenging and time-consuming.

2. Interactive Training Requirement: The training must be interactive, allowing for questions and answers. This implies a need for more engaging and possibly hands-on training sessions, which can be more complex to design and execute than standard lecture-based training​​.

3. Content Specificity: The training must cover specific aspects like how to report workplace violence, specific violence hazards in the workplace, and ways to avoid physical harm​​. Ensuring that all these topics are comprehensively covered, especially in workplaces with diverse risks, can be demanding.

4. Integration with Existing Policies: Employers must integrate the WVPP with their existing policies and procedures. For some organizations, this may require significant adjustments to their current health and safety protocols​​.

5. Record-Keeping and Documentation: Keeping detailed records of training sessions, including content summaries and attendee lists, adds an administrative burden. Employers must maintain these records for at least one year​​.

6. Ongoing Compliance: The requirement for annual training means that this is not a one-time effort. Employers must consistently update and deliver the training, which requires dedicated resources and continual effort.

7. Addressing Diverse Workplace Environments: Each workplace has unique characteristics and risks associated with it. Developing a training program that is both general enough to be applicable across different settings and specific enough to address particular risks can be challenging.

8. Keeping Up with Regulatory Changes: Employers must stay informed about any updates or changes in the law and adjust their training programs accordingly. The requirement for Cal/OSHA to propose further standards by 2025 and 2026 adds an element of future change that employers need to prepare for​​.

9. Resource Allocation: Small and medium-sized enterprises may find it particularly challenging to allocate the necessary resources—both in terms of time and money—for developing and maintaining compliant training programs.

While the intentions of SB 553 are to enhance workplace safety, the path to compliance is complex and requires a significant investment of resources. Employers will need to carefully plan and execute their training programs to meet the specific requirements of the law. Project Hummingbird’s workplace violence training was designed with specific requirements in mind. Rest assured that this one piece of your workplace violence plan can be easily implemented using your existing LMS.

Mental Health Awareness Is Not A Collateral Duty

According to the Treatment Advocacy Center, people with untreated mental illness are 16 times more likely to be killed during a police encounter than other civilians. There is no reliable data on how many people with mental illness are involved in police shootings annually, but studies show that the numbers are troubling—likely between one-third and one-half of total police killings. This is in part due to compliance-based training that is standard for most officers in which police learn to request compliance but quickly move on to force if the person doesn't immediately comply. Under dangerous and uncertain circumstances, in which officers must make quick decisions with limited information, officers often don't have the luxury of asking for compliance twice, or even at all. 

One year ago, Daniel Prude, a father of five from Chicago’s Southwest Side, was visiting his brother in Rochester, NY when he was killed by Rochester police. Daniel was mentally ill, addicted to drugs, and in need of help. Instead of help, Daniel died from asphyxia after police covered his head with a hood and pinned him face down on the ground until he stopped moving. The County medical examiner ruled his death a homicide; however, in the end, a grand jury decided not to bring an indictment against the officers involved.

Daniel Prude - gofundme/police bodycam footage

It’s not easy de-escalating a dangerous situation with someone like Daniel, who at the time of his death was erratic, high on PCP, and threatening police. However, he was also naked and unarmed, and did not deserve to die for acting "erratic." All it takes is seeing the bodycam footage from the arresting officers to be sure that something is wrong here. Those who knew and loved Daniel, those who seek justice, those who dedicate their lives to keeping people safe, and those who hope to rebuild the trust between police and their communities should be outraged by Daniel’s story and so many others like it. We should all be outraged.

It is unfair to police officers that our nation’s mental health crisis has turned mental illness into a police matter. A survey by Responder Strong, an organization that offers mental health services to emergency responders and their families, found that licensed mental health professionals are available in only 68% of urban and 60% of rural areas. 

While the long-term solution is to improve the mental health system so that police are not the primary responders for mental health emergencies, in the meantime, police need to be better trained in recognizing mental illness and de-escalation skills that can help save their own lives as well as those who desperately need their help. 

No officer starts a shift hoping to end a life, a decision made even more complicated when taking the life of someone mentally ill.

Police have the very tough job of making life and death decisions, under pressure, with limited information. It would be unfathomable to send a law enforcement officer into the line of duty without a service weapon, and yet we send them to interact with the public with only the de-escalation skills that they brought along with them to the job. It is tough for even highly trained and seasoned mental health professionals to handle an erratic, dangerous, or unpredictable person suffering from a mental health crisis, and yet these skills are expected of every officer.

We owe it to these officers to provide them with the tools and training they need to conduct the full scope of their duties, which often involves encounters with people who are disturbed, agitated, or mentally ill. We also owe these officers additional resources for processing their own traumas and stressors associated with the job itself. The same survey by Responder Strong found that only 11% of leaders believe that responders feel comfortable discussing their own mental health.

If you or someone you love is experiencing a mental health issue, we strongly encourage you to seek help early and often, prior to needing to call emergency services. 

If you or someone you know is suffering from mental illness:

• Find a substance abuse treatment center near you at FindTreatment.gov 
  

• Free and confidential support for people in distress, 24/7 at the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline or call 1-800-273-TALK (8255)
  

• Find treatment facilities confidentially, 24/7 at the Behavioral Health Treatment Services Locator
  

• For treatment referral and information, 24/7 visit the National Helpline or call 1-800-662-HELP (4357)
  

• Find resources on mental  health education, support groups, and information on the NAMI crisis line at  the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) 
  

• Get the latest research on mental health disorders at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
  

• For mental health resources specifically for emergency responders and their families, visit Responder Strong

Recognizing and Addressing Violence and Harassment in the Workplace

A critical first step is expanding the definition of Workplace Violence (WPV) within your organization to extend beyond what is traditionally considered WPV, such as active shooter events and other acts of aggression.

The Workplace Violence and Active Assailant—Prevention, Intervention, and Response ASIS Standard defines workplace violence as “a spectrum of behaviors, including overt acts of violence, threats, and other conduct that generates a reasonable concern for safety from violence, where a nexus exists between the behavior and the physical safety of employees from any internal or external relationship.” This includes: 

• behavior that is concerning but not violent, such as stalking (in person and online), physical intimidation, infatuation with weapons and violence, and suicidal statements

• conduct by former employees, contractors, visitors, customers, and clients

• emotional aggression such as workplace bullying, sabotage, and other forms of harassment. 

• conduct by partners and family members of employees, including domestic violence or abuse.
  

Broadening the definition allows companies to identify and address a risk prior to an act of violence, especially for behavior that is not violent, but could be a warning sign.

These warning signs are easy to overlook but should be considered in the aggregate, highlighting clusters of behaviors or notable changes to baseline behavior, such as a sudden drop in performance, excessive absence, financial distress, and unusual antisocial behavior.

Notably, this definition does not need to stipulate where the activity occurs, or that it needs to occur at the workplace. This distinction is critical in remote work or hybrid work environments, which will likely remain the norm for the foreseeable future, and will allow companies to be more proactive in ensuring employee safety while ensuring duty of care requirements are met. Under OSHA’s General Duty Clause, every employer has a general duty to “… furnish to each of his employee’s employment and a place of employment which are free from recognized hazards that are causing or are likely to cause death or serious physical harm to his employees.”  That duty applies regardless of the location where your employees are working.

This duty of care required in a COVID world means that domestic violence and unsafe home-life conditions will overlap with company WPV programs.

The Corporate Alliance to End Partner Violence, a national nonprofit organization based in Bloomington, IL found that 21% of full-time employed adults said they were victims of domestic violence. The Department of Labor reports that victims of domestic violence lose nearly 8 million days of paid work per year in the U.S., resulting in a $1.8 billion loss in productivity for employers. 

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, research is beginning to show a rise in domestic violence incidents across the globe. It is estimated that over 10 million adults experience some form of domestic violence every year, which is almost 20 people every single minute in the U.S alone. Of those numbers, approximately 1 in 4 women and 1 in 10 men report that they have experienced severe domestic violence. However, emerging data now estimates that 1 in 2 women reported that they have experienced violence since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

While not a direct relationship, the pandemic has exacerbated DV and removed the protective factors of community relationships and outside influence and input, deepening survivor isolation. This can lead to escalation of violence.

Since the March lockdown, we’ve seen reports from Portland, Oregon that show a 22% increase in DV reports, San Antonio, Texas, where calls increased by 18%, Jefferson County, Alabama, where DV reports increased by 27%, and much more. Therefore, it is no surprise then that DAFW (days away from work) cases for women in private industries increased by 68% in 2020, according to a news release by the U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Considering that millions of Americans across the country will face some form of domestic violence, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has made it clear that ignorance of the issue is no longer a viable defense for corporate leaders and CSOs. WOMAN, Inc., a non-profit organization based in San Francisco, CA, warns businesses that many survivors of domestic violence do not disclose because of a fear of professional consequences, a trend that inadvertently impacts the safety of not only the survivor, but all of his and her colleagues, as 58-88% of survivors have experienced harassment by a partner (or ex-partner) on the job. 

While there are limits to what employers can and should do to address instances of violence outside the workplace, at the very least, employees should have a clear and confidential means to report these incidents, request accommodations and support from EAPs, and alert security teams to any workplace safety concerns.  

The Importance of Law Enforcement Training in Countering Violent Extremism and Terrorism

The RAND Corporation assessed various aspects of the State and Local Anti-Terrorism Training (SLATT), a program from the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) that provides specialized training to state, local, and tribal law enforcement on understanding, detecting, deterring, and investigating acts of terrorism and violent extremism. Overall, only 6 out of 10 workshop participants indicated that the information provided during the SLATT workshops would change their approach to international terrorist or domestic terrorist threats and/or how they might investigate them.

The SLATT Program is broad in its reach; however, the majority of survey respondents indicated that they had participated in only one or two SLATT trainings in the past five years. This suggests that the exposure to the information provided in the SLATT workshops is infrequent for most law enforcement personnel and not enough to assume that it will lead to actual behavioral change. 

These findings are significant because as of the time of the study, the program had provided instruction to almost 150,000 practitioners, but it was evaluated as insufficient to change behavior. 

Although the United States has not suffered an attack in the past 15 years as catastrophic as the 9/11 terrorist attacks, terrorism trends show that there appears to be no significant abatement of attack attempts or attack planning since 2011. While al-Qa’ida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) attacks have been unsuccessful on U.S. soil, the recent successful strikes by Islamic State (IS)-inspired extremists in France and Belgium should give serious cause for concern.

The IS represents a growing transnational terrorist threat to the United States. These foreign fighters pose a future risk to the United States, while the immediate threat lies in IS’s radicalized support base and presents a significant rise in terrorist activity in the United States. Further, with the US’s abrupt withdrawal from Afghanistan, we are in a race against terrorist groups to construct an effective counterterrorism program. 

Over Halloween weekend, authorities were on high alert throughout Northern Virginia after they were made aware of reports of potential threats towards retail centers, possibly linking back to ISIS. A senior law enforcement official reported that the threat was in fact credible and stated that they were aimed at shopping malls in the Fredricksburg, Virginia area specifically.

Another concern has been the growth of the QAnon movement, which specifically targets government officials and law enforcement. QAnon supporters have been linked to multiple attempted kidnappings across the United States. In September, a California Native was charged after taking his two children on a summer trip to Mexico and killing them after reading QAnon conspiracy theories online. 

A kidnapping plot in France that occurred on Apr 13, 2021, marks what is believed to be the first time that a crime in Europe has been linked to the QAnon conspiracy theorists. This shows that while the QAnon movement was once strictly a U.S based movement, it has quickly spread to over 85 countries and its beliefs have been adapted to various contexts and languages around the world. Recently, Europol, the European umbrella policing agency, has added QAnon to their list of growing threats. 

These trends suggest an ongoing need to ensure that state and local law enforcement receive training in this area. Although the FBI and other federal law enforcement are responsible for investigating terrorist threats, they rely on the information-sharing about terrorist threats and the detection and response by state and local law enforcement. State and local law enforcement play an important role in detecting and preventing terrorist attacks. 

Any strategy for countering violent extremism (CVE) has to go beyond the federal joint terrorism task forces (JTTFs) and will depend on strengthening local partnerships with communities and reducing barriers to sharing of information; law enforcement will be a key partner in this regard.

Strom et al. (2010) estimated that 80 percent of foiled terrorist plots in the United States were discovered because of observations by state and local law enforcement or by the general public. Discoveries of terror plots during routine law enforcement investigations of seemingly ordinary crimes and criminally suspicious activity constituted the fourth-largest source of initial clues (Strom, Hollywood, and Pope, 2016).

Project Hummingbird seeks to support law enforcement officers and other first responders to detect potential threats from international terrorist groups, domestic extremist groups, and particularly anti-government and criminal sovereign citizen elements who seem to disproportionately target law enforcement authorities. Our 12-hour program combines the latest in academic research with practical investigative skills that can directly support and advance CT investigations for law enforcement practitioners. 

One Year Later: Police Shooting Involving Cocoa Teens Highlights the Urgent Need for Police Reform

This article was published on November 12, 2021, in the Orlando Sentinel. See the response here.

This month marks the one-year anniversary of the deaths of Florida teens Sincere Pierce, 18,  and Angelo “A.J” Crooms, 16, who were both shot and killed after a traffic stop on November 13, 2020. 

Deputies attempted to pull the teens over after they were spotted driving a car that was suspected of being stolen. Law enforcement’s dashcam footage shows deputies ordering the teens to stop the vehicle while they were backing out of a driveway, when the teens instead tried to drive forward after backing out, deputies fired multiple shots at the car, fatally striking both teens. It was later determined that the car that A.J was driving was not the stolen vehicle officers were looking for.

Angelo Crooms, 16 and Sincere Pierce, 18.

Source: https://www.change.org/p/brevard-county-sherrif-s-office-justice-for-aj-and-justice-for-spud

While Pierce and Crooms aren't here to tell their side of the story, at best these two teens were killed for failing to comply fast enough, at worst they were killed over a simple misunderstanding. Two kids, who were in fact not driving a stolen car, did not deserve to die that day. There was no imminent threat to the officers or another person. Tactical patience and better communication could have created the critical space between a routine traffic stop and the tragic death of two teenagers. 

Earlier this year, state prosecutors reported that they have decided against pressing charges against the Brevard county deputy, stating that it was “highly reasonable” for the deputies to draw their firearms immediately after exiting their patrol car. However, this tactic has been highly criticized by attorneys and activists across the U.S.

A year later, fatal police encounters continue to erode trust between law enforcement and their communities, paradoxically making it more likely that innocent people, like Pierce and Crooms, are reluctant to cooperate with police and are killed as a result. 

We owe it to the families of these two teens, and so many in similar situations, to hold the police to a higher standard that compels them to exhaust a full range of de-escalation and compliance techniques prior to ever firing a weapon. 

It’s vital that tactical training is complemented with training in “soft skills'' that create a critical space between the first encounter with a suspect and the decision to use lethal force. It’s in this critical space that law enforcement can effectively collect information that can prevent a violent encounter altogether and mean the difference between life and death. 

The vast majority of interactions with the public can and should be resolved peacefully, yet current training and tactics emphasize physical force and restraint over communication, de-escalation, and tactical patience. This failure to prepare police for the breadth of their duties contributes to over 1,000 fatal police shootings each year and growing distrust between law enforcement and their communities. 

When you are equipped with nothing but hammers, it's no wonder that every problem, suspect, and fleeing teenager, looks like a nail. If we don’t train our law enforcement differently, we will continue to see these terrible outcomes. 

New Police Reform Laws in California Aim to Hold Officers Accountable, but is This Enough?

Earlier this month, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Bill SB 2 that will eliminate several legal immunities that shield law enforcement from civil rights lawsuits. This move is easy to overlook as legislative minutia, but it has the potential to make a huge impact on how police officers are held accountable for excessive force and other misconduct.

Currently, victims of police misconduct are hamstrung by qualified immunity, which prevents government agents, including police officers, from being sued for violating someone’s constitutional rights, unless they violated “clearly established” constitutional rights. While the legal doctrine is aimed at protecting government officials and law enforcement who are performing their duties reasonably from frivolous civil lawsuits, in practice, the legal doctrine makes it harder to hold police accountable for their actions. 

July 4, 2020 - Thousands of protestors march with the Coalition to Honor Black and Indigenous Activists at Fort Greene Park in Brooklyn, NY

Photo Credit: Erik McGregor

For example, Fresno police officers accused of stealing more than $225,000 while executing searches of people’s homes were granted qualified immunity by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco because there is s no clear law holding that police violate the 4th Amendment protection against illegal search and seizure or the 14th Amendment right to due process when they steal property while serving a search warrant. Not surprisingly, the Council on Criminal Justice published a report on qualified immunity, in which they concluded that the legal precedent has made it difficult to hold law enforcement agencies and officers accountable for the harm caused by excessive force and other forms of misconduct.

While the SB 2 bill seeks to address some gaps in the law that basically provided absolute immunity for police officers investigating a crime and attempts to change California laws that shield prison guards from being held liable for injuring prisoners, this increasingly complex legislation and series of seemingly endless provisions can leave an officer’s head spinning about what conduct is and is not immune to prosecution. While SB2 is a step in the right direction, it misses the broader point, which is that officers operating at the edge of the law should not be kept in check by legal precedent alone. Rather, we need to make the gap between officers acting in “good faith” and those with a “specific intent” to interfere with someone’s constitutional rights in a manner that is “deliberate or spiteful.”

The solution to this problem is for police departments and federal agencies to have stricter lethal force policies that compel officers to exhaust the full range of options prior to using lethal force, even if it is justified in hindsight. For example, in May, the Sacramento City Council adopted new policy language requiring police officers to only use deadly force “as a last resort.” While a step in the right direction, the new policy falls short of what was asked of the council by Sacramento Community Police Review Commission, which requested language stating that deadly force is permissible “only as a last resort and when reasonable alternatives have been exhausted or are not feasible.” This language would set an expectation that police should be expected to use an entire array of tools and techniques prior to ever drawing a weapon. 

To be effective in application, any policy changes must be accompanied by cultural changes that de-emphasize the “warrior cop” mentality that focuses on physical toughness and dominance and instead evaluates officers on their ability to avoid violence, keep the peace, and maintain order. Likewise, any use of force should be justified, not just by a lethal force policy, but based on whether or not that amount of force was necessary based on the circumstances at that time.

Lastly, for real change to occur, we must begin training police officers differently by complementing existing tactical training with training in “soft skills'' that can prevent a tense situation from becoming a violent encounter, thus preventing the need for physical force in the first place. To create lasting change, we need to provide officers the tools they need to conduct the full breadth of their duties, which the vast majority of the time should be peacefully interacting with the public. No officer starts a shift hoping to end of life, and no officer wants to have to use the indemnity clause in a court of law to defend his or her actions. Rather, it’s time that we started arming officers with a more diverse toolset.

Proper training, coupled with a think-first, shoot-second mindset and a lethal force policy that compels officers to exhaust a full range of options before using a weapon, will prevent “well-intentioned” officers from ever needing to use the qualified immunity defense. Likewise, it will make it harder for bad cops, violent cops, and racist cops, to use the defense that they were only acting as they were trained and within department policy. Sure there may be a few bad apples, but with over 1000 fatal police shootings each year, that can’t be the entire story.

Not only do we owe it to these officers to train them to do their jobs safely, but we also owe it to police leaders, judges, juries, and the community, to more effectively rout out these “bad apples” so that they can be prosecuted to the full extent of the law, as they should be. Doing so will not only remove qualified immunity as a pass for bad behavior, it will protect the sanctity of the qualified immunity defense to do as it was designed, to protect those who seek to protect us.

A Better Way to Stay Safe and Stop Violent Conflicts

Posted on July 13th, 2021 by Cathy Evans

Allison Sands has all the tools to stay safe and stop violent conflicts whether she is in the alleys of Chicago or the center of extremism in the Persian Gulf. As a former FBI agent, she is trained in tactics to take down an attacker or disarm a person with a gun pointed at her head. But the skills she uses more often, and teaches through her company, Project Hummingbird, are those that can derail violence and actually keep everyone safe. She started this business because she realized that the way we’re doing things now just isn’t working. Every year  there are a thousand fatal officer involved shootings. She says this isn’t new. It happens every year. Although she was trained to physically dominate an opponent, as a woman, she says that most of the time she couldn’t outfight or outrun him, so she has to outsmart him. And for that, she relies on her earlier education in psychology and religion, where she set out to learn why people behave the way they do.

Allison says that her whole life has been a combination of her call to use skills and research for practical applications. The mixture worked well in the FBI and in counterintelligence and counter espionage when she used it to hunt terrorists and recruit spies, and it served her well in corporate security too. She founded Project Hummingbird to have a greater impact to provide solutions for this critical need, not only in law enforcement, but in security in general. Through Project Hummingbird, she teaches unique skills and techniques geared to avoiding violence rather than physically dominating an opponent. It directly applies to crisis counselors, healthcare professionals, and anyone who might potentially face a violent encounter. In today’s world, that really could be anyone.

Project Hummingbird’s Individually-Based Approach

There are definitely instances where lethal force is necessary, and Allison admits that we need training for that and says that she is not trying to replace it, but rather complement it. She says, “There’s a huge gray area between a peaceful confrontation and lethal force encounter.” It’s that middle piece where we learn to have conflict more effectively and constructively that will keep us safe. Allison called it “individually-based approach,” where each person is coached to understand their own stress responses and conflict style. Next, assess your surroundings—is action required at this time. Third, is to assess your desired outcome. What do you want to achieve? Next control your stress responses and stay true to your values. Is it really a conflict or are you just reacting instinctually to the situation? Finally, engage with communication to induce compliance. Project Hummingbird has standard statements to achieve that end. But the important thing is to control yourself and stick to achieving the outcome you desire from the situation.

See the recorded interview here!

Train police differently to keep us all safe

This article was published on April 1, 2021 in the Napa Valley Register. See the response here.

One year ago on April 24, 2020, Brandan Nylander was shot and killed by a Napa Sheriff Deputy. After allegedly stealing ammunition from a Walmart in Napa, Brandan led police on a three-minute car chase before ending up at a blocked access road near the Napa County Airport. He was shot and killed after emerging from his car. He was 27 years old. In mid-March 2021, his family sued the county and the deputy involved in the shooting for excessive force, battery, negligence, and failure to properly train law enforcement officers.

Amid their grief and despair, the family is seeking damages not only for the action of the officer on the scene, but against the county for failing to train its officers effectively. This is a grim reminder that this is not a one-off incident, but rather, something that could happen to any of us who have the misfortune of committing a crime and encountering police. It’s a canary in a coal mine of growing distrust between law enforcement and the communities they serve.

While most people enter law enforcement because they want to help others, they are increasingly met with distrust, disgust, and hostility from the very people they seek to protect. Stories like Brandon’s and so many like it have created a deep distrust and fear of police in many communities and make it hard for the public to see police as the “good guys.” We are raising a generation that doesn’t feel safe calling the police for help. All those in need of help should be running towards police, an increasing number of us running away from them as a primary source of fear.

Our law enforcement officers are a pillar of our community and deserve a position of authority and respect. However, if we don’t train our law enforcement differently, we will keep seeing these terrible outcomes. In most academies, police are trained to subdue a violent attacker in dozens of ways. However, this training creates a mindset that every interaction with the public is potentially deadly, and that danger lurks around every corner. While these skills are intended to save an officer’s life, the ability to prevent a tense situation from escalating into a violent encounter is also a life-saving skill. In fact, it is the most important life saving skill.

Tactical training must be complemented with training in “soft skills'' that create a critical space between the first encounter with a suspect and the decision to use lethal force. It is in this critical space that law enforcement can collect information that can avoid a violent encounter altogether and mean the difference between life and death. Officers deserve to also be armed with a full set of tools to avoid violence, collect information, and prevent the need for lethal force. Not only will these skills better equip officers to do the most common and often most difficult aspect of their jobs - keeping the peace and maintaining order - they will keep well-intentioned officers on the force and people like Brandon alive.

This distrust, disrespect, and general antipathy for the police makes it difficult, if not impossible, for them to do their jobs effectively. Citizens are increasingly less likely to help them understand the situation; rather, they are increasingly less likely to cooperate, increasing the chances of escalation and violence. And tragically, when the situations turn violent or even deadly, those officers are investigated, terminated, and sometimes prosecuted. Violent encounters further deepen distrust, and the vicious cycle continues. Police deserve better. Napa residents deserve better. We shouldn't accept as inevitable that the growing animosity and lawlessness nationwide has found its way to Napa. There is a better way.

Policing and Mental Illness Don’t Mix, but They Often Do.

This OpEd ran in the Shreveport Times on April 2, 2021.

One year ago on April 6, 2020, Tommie Dale McGlothen Jr. was killed by Shreveport Police.

McGlothen had a mental illness, and officers had been notified of his condition on three prior encounters prior to the arrest which eventually led to his death. The parish coroner determined that his death was preventable, leading to an indictment against all four officers for using excessive force and then failing to provide adequate medical attention.

It’s not easy de-escalating a dangerous situation with someone who is mentally ill and potentially violent. However, despite the complexities of the situation, the result was one dead unarmed, mentally ill man, four ended careers, and countless lives forever and irrevocably changed.

More:Shreveport officers charged in Tommie McGlothen Jr.'s in-custody death get jury trial date

Those who knew and loved McGlothen, those who seek justice, those who dedicate their lives to keeping people safe, and those who hope to rebuild the trust between police and their communities should be outraged by McGlothen’s story and so many others like it. We all should be outraged.

In most police academies, cadets are trained to subdue a violent attacker, fire a handgun and rifles with precision, and to use lethal force. However, short of some rudimentary de-escalation techniques, they are rarely trained in how to handle encounters with those who are mentally ill.

Once a mentally ill person encounters law enforcement, it is often too late. A 2015 study from the Treatment Advocacy Center found that severe mental illnesses are involved in at least one in four and as many as half of all fatal police shootings. 

McGlothen’s story highlights the importance of complementing tactical training with training in “soft skills'' that create a critical space between the first encounter with a suspect and the decision to use lethal force. Given that police are trained to approach every interaction with the public as a potentially violent encounter, it is no wonder that there are over 1,000 fatal police shootings year after year. When you are giving a toolkit full of hammers, it's no wonder every problem looks like a nail.

If we don't train officers differently, we will continue to see these terrible outcomes. While the use of lethal force is sometimes necessary, oftentimes it is not.

In fact, the vast majority of interactions with the public can be resolved peacefully. We need to create a new normal where police are expected to first use the full spectrum of de-escalation tools prior to ever using a weapon. There is a large body of academic work and countless practical examples of how de-escalation and conflict resolution skills can avoid a violent encounter altogether and mean the difference between life and death. 

More:McGlothen family files lawsuit in Shreveport police custody death

No cop starts a shift hoping to end a life. However, police have the very tough job of making life and death decisions, under pressure, with limited information. It would be unfathomable to send a law enforcement officer into the line of duty without a service weapon, and yet we send them to interact with the public with only the people skills that they brought along with them to the job. It is unfair to these officers that our nation’s mental health crisis has turned mental illness into a police matter.

While the long term solution is to improve our mental health system so that police are not the primary responders for mental health emergencies, in the meantime, we owe it to our officers to provide the de-escalation skills that can help save their own lives and avoid killing those who call on them for help.

On March 29, 2021, a trial date for the four officers involved in McGlothen’s death was set for 13 December. Officers Treona McCarter, Brian Ross, D’Marea Johnson, and James LeClare have pleaded not guilty to charges of negligent homicide and malfeasance.

Read more here.

Running from police should not be a death sentence

Many thanks to Las Cruces Sun News for posting this OpEd on the anniversary of the death of Antonio "Tony" Valenzuela.

https://www.lcsun-news.com/story/opinion/2021/02/28/running-police-shouldnt-death-sentence/6851601002/

OPINION

One year ago on Feb. 29, Antonio "Tony" Valenzuela was killed by police. In the early morning hours, Las Cruces police conducted a routine traffic stop for a vehicle with expired insurance. Tony, who was not the owner or driver of the car, but merely sitting in the back seat, had a bench warrant for his arrest and fled from police.

During the foot pursuit, one officer deployed his department-issued Taser. Tony was put in a vascular neck restraint, and soon became unresponsive. He was pronounced dead at the scene. A Gerber multi-tool knife was later found in his pocket. Those who knew and loved Tony, and those who seek to rebuild the trust between police and their communities, are outraged by Tony’s story and so many others like it. We all should be outraged.

Police are trained to subdue a violent attacker in dozens of ways. However, this training creates a mindset that every interaction with the public is potentially deadly, and that danger lurks around every corner. While these skills are intended to save an officer’s life, the ability to prevent a tense situation from escalating into a violent encounter is also a life-saving skill. Actually, it’s an even more important life-saving skill.

The vast majority of interactions with the public involve connecting with people, but officers are rarely trained on how to do so effectively. This failure to prepare police for the breadth of their duties contributes to over 1,000 fatal police shootings each year and a large and growing distrust between law enforcement and their communities. If we don’t train our law enforcement differently, we will keep seeing these terrible outcomes.

To be sure, there are instances in which deadly force is justified and necessary, and much time and money are spent preparing officers to react instinctively in these situations. But stories like Tony’s show that split second judgements are not always accurate, and that police, like the rest of us, are fallible.

Law enforcement officers can not rely on instincts alone when making life or death decisions about the nature of a threat. Factors such as clothing, accents, and skin color consciously or subconsciously shape judgements about who is dangerous, threatening, or aggressive. This is especially true for communities of color, who are shot and killed by police at twice the rate of White Americans.

Tactical training must be complemented with training in “soft skills'' that create a critical space between the first encounter with a suspect and the decision to use lethal force. It is in this critical space that law enforcement can collect information that can avoid a violent encounter altogether and mean the difference between life and death. Running from police should not be a death sentence.

In addition to making more informed decisions, officers need skills to better connect with their communities so they can be more respected and effective. Stories like Tony’s have created a deep distrust and fear of police in many communities and make it hard for the public to see police as the “good guys.” While most people enter law enforcement because they want to help others, they are increasingly met with distrust, disgust, and hostility from the very people they seek to protect.

It would be unfathomable to send a law enforcement officer into the line of duty without a service weapon, and yet we send them to interact with the public with only the people skills that they brought along with them to the job. Officers deserve to also be armed with a full set of tools to avoid violence, collect information, and prevent the need for lethal force. Not only will these skills better equip officers to do the most common and often most difficult aspect of their jobs — connecting with people — they will keep people like Tony alive.

When mental health crises become a police matter, everybody loses.

At around 9:30pm last Tuesday, a man was seen holding a knife to his throat at the Seattle Waterfront. Chilling bodycam footage of the incident showed the man approaching the officers on scene with his hands up saying “do do it, please kill me.” Those were his final words before shot and killed by police. While an investigation into the incident is ongoing, all it takes is seeing the 90 second video to be sure that something is wrong. No one joins the force to help a desperate man commit suicide. There has got to be a better way.

In most police academies, cadets are trained to subdue a violent attacker, fire a handgun and rifles with precision, and to use lethal force under strict conditions. However, short of some rudimentary de-escalation techniques, they are rarely trained in how to handle encounters with those who are mentally ill. Once a mentally ill person encounters law enforcement, it is often too late. A study from the Treatment Advocacy Center found that severe mental illnesses are involved in at least 1 in 4 and as many as half of all fatal police shootings.

It is unfair to these officers that our nation’s mental health crisis has turned mental illness into a police matter. The long-term solution is to improve Seattle’s mental health system so that police are not the primary responders for mental health emergencies; in the meantime, police need to be better trained in de-escalation skills that can help save their own lives as well as those who desperately need their help.

No cop starts a shift hoping to end a life, a decision made even more complicated when taking the life of someone so clearly mentally ill. Police have the very tough job of making life and death decisions, under pressure, with limited information. We owe it to these officers to provide them with the tools and training they need to conduct the full scope of their duties, which often involves encounters with people who are disturbed, agitated, or mentally ill.

Tuesday’s incident highlights the importance of complementing tactical training with training in “soft skills'' that create a critical space between the first encounter with a suspect and the decision to use lethal force. It is in this critical space that law enforcement can hopefully avoid a violent encounter altogether and mean the difference between life and death.

This failure to prepare police for the breadth of their duties contributes to over 1,000 fatal police shootings each year, needless killing of some of the most vulnerable members of our communities, and a large and growing distrust between law enforcement and their communities. If we don’t train our law enforcement differently, we will keep seeing these terrible outcomes.

It would be unfathomable to send a law enforcement officer into the line of duty without a service weapon, and yet we send them to interact with the public with only the people skills that they brought along with them to the job. Officers deserve to also be armed with a full set of tools to avoid violence, collect information, and prevent the need for lethal force. Not only will these skills better equip officers to do the most common and often most difficult aspect of their jobs - connecting with people - they will save the lives of many people who are desperately seeking their help.

BLM Protests & Police Shootings

A new study by Travis Campbell at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst found that police homicides decrease 15-20% over a five year period following BLM protests, and that the effect ”is most prominent when protests are large or frequent.” Over the ensuing five year period, this amounted to approximately 300 fewer deaths. 

The full paper can be found here, but the abstract is as follows:

The gap in lethal use-of-force between places with and without protests widens over these subsequent years and is most prominent when protests are large or frequent. This result holds for alternative specifications, estimators, police homicide datasets, and population screens; however, it does not hold if lethal use-of-force is normalized by violent crime or arrests. Protests also influence local police agencies, which may explain the reduction. Agencies with local protests become more likely to obtain body-cameras, expand community policing, receive a larger operating budget, and reduce the number of property crime-related arrests, but forego some black officer employment and college education requirements.

The study is amazing and it’s findings, but it begs the question that is much harder to answer… Why? What is the causal link between these protests and a reduction in police shootings? While the causal chain of events that ultimately ends in a police officer using lethal force are undoubtedly complicated, the protests have heightened awareness about systemic racism in policing. Which in turn creates hesitation and a critical space for thoughtful assessments. It is in this critical space that life and death decisions are made. 

At Project Hummingbird, we believe that, with some extremely rare exceptions, people who use deadly force in the line of duty do so only if they believe, fully in that moment, that the person poses a grave threat to themselves or another person. Sometimes they are right, but sometimes they are not. No doubt, race plays a role in split second decisions about who is dangerous, threatening, or aggressive. White cops need this training, but so do Black cops, and mall cops, and security guards, and executive protection agents. We can not solve the problem that people often make poor decisions and inaccurate judgements out of fear, but we can help overrule those instincts by using information to better assess who poses a threat to life. 

Countless examples have shown that we can not solely rely on our instincts to determine who deserves to die. We need to learn to rely on our words, and our reasoning, prior to taking a human life. Yes, of course there are life and death situations in which officers are fighting for their lives, but that is not the case in every shooting. A human life is important enough to know the difference. 

The BLM protests and subsequent national conversation around race has made it harder for police to deny the impact of race on making split second decisions, and perhaps paradoxically, easier for good cops of all ethnicity to be absolutely sure they were in danger before using violence of any kind. When police are more aware of their biases, they can also be more confident in their decisions.  

We owe it to the officers in the line of duty and the communities they serve to continue the discourse about race and its impact on police shootings. Moreover, we need more studies like Mr. Campbell’s who can add some quantifiable data to what many communities of color already know to be true- that they have higher chances of an encounter with law enforcement, that those encounters are more likely to lead to arrest and incarceration, and that in instances of deadly force they are killed at disproportionately high rates.