Collecting De-Escalation Statistics

Shared 10/26/2022 

The perception about the realities of police use of force have been the consistent shortfall of our profession; whether justified situations or not. Beyond supporting training, community education and community policing, it is a responsibility of law enforcement leaders to collect and share statistics that paint the most accurate picture of the challenges that our officers face. Collecting both de-escalation and use of force statistics more accurately shows the dangers that officers experience and the expertise that officers use to effectively handle those situations. These statistics also assist with justifying our staffing needs to most safely navigate situations. 

Law enforcement agencies generally do well with documenting and investigating departmental uses of force, but they do not statistically credit officers for using their abilities to avoid use of force when practical. In February 2020, my agency became the first-known agency to collect de-escalation statistics using our own defined metrics. Our process of documenting and recognizing de-escalated situations assists with officer safety alerts, community support, and the praise of  officers.

 Our agency only documented de-escalated situations that could have otherwise resulted in use of force situations. For our purposes, we did not document de-escalation efforts that ultimately lead to any use of force in part because it would over-complicate the process. 

Our de-escalation instructors had the ability to share our best de-escalation examples with their peers during departmental meetings. We reported de-escalations by email to an officers group listing the call for service number, subject’s name, month of incident, and short description such as “cursing, fighting cues, aggressive language, display of weapon, self-harm, threats of harming others, or threat.” By sending these emails, our officers receive instant recognition with  their team. 

At the beginning of each month, I shared our updated de-escalation statistics with my department to credit our leaders of de-escalation and reinforce de-escalation as a priority. 

Our de-escalation statistics were a factor for receiving our officer of the year award. Additional considerations for the award included actions during critical use of force situations and overall work ethic. 

Below is what was considered to be de-escalation for our documentation purposes. 
       

        - Cursing at an officer (in-person) 

       -  Threat or fighting cues towards anyone (in-person)
       

       -   Aggressive language other than direct threats (in-person). 
      

       -  Display of any weapon or item that could be used as a weapon (in-person) 


       -  Verbally mitigating statements of self-harm or harming of others (in-person)

Once this was proved to be successful, it was shared with law enforcement agencies around the country. Law enforcement leaders must be responsible to their employees by collecting and sharing statistics that paint the most accurate picture of the challenges that our officers face to more accurately shows the dangers that officers experience. This also shows the expertise that officers use to effectively handle those situations.