New Castle County Police Department's New Training Is Focused On De-escalation
NEW CASTLE COUNTY, Del. (CBS) - During a time of national debate over police use of force, one Delaware Valley police department is starting a new training program focused on de-escalation. They invited Eyewitness News to check it out and showed us what makes this program different than the training of the past.
On a quiet day in Delaware, in an unassuming building, New Castle County Police are going back to class.
This is training day and these are real-life scenarios. Everything from domestic incidents to mental health checks. All meant to put police through their paces with de-escalation in mind.
"How to handle these situations and steering away from hands-on to where communication and understanding and empathy could actually help diffuse the situation," New Castle County Police Master Cpl. Michael Eckerd said.
The de-escalation training is part of a brand new program supported by a $200,000 federal grant. New Castle County is one of the first departments in the state to try it out.
'This is more hands-on so it's good to actually have the officers running through scenario-based training because it allows them to actually act out what we're trying to accomplish," New Castle County Police Sgt. Andrea Botterbusch said.
On this day County Police let Eyewitness News suit up and tag along, Sgt. Botterbusch led the way.
"The quicker we respond to something, the quicker we can prevent it from escalating even further," Botterbusch said. "Sometimes they're Tazing the individual, sometimes they're going hands-on, but regardless of which type of force they're using, it is to recognize that we want to move quick, so the situation can't continue to escalate."
The training comes amid a national debate over police use of force and following an exhaustive review of a controversial death involving New Castle County Police. A Delaware Department of Justice report recently cleared New Castle County Police of any wrongdoing in the deadly shooting of Lymond Moses, a man they say appeared to drive toward officers at the time.
Moses' family although strongly disagrees with the finding, and the report also concluded that Moses' death could have been avoided if better policing tactics were used and officers were provided with more effective use of force training.
New Castle County Police have trained in de-escalation in the past, but this program allows for more hands-on training, more real-life situations, and now cutting-edge technology as well.
The department now has 23 of these virtual reality headsets, each one loaded with 12 scenarios.
"It allows the officer to recognize that one decision can change the next trajectory of where you are going and that you have to be constantly reassessing everything," Botterbusch said.
For every action, a reaction, and now for every sworn officer at New Castle County Police this immersive de-escalation training.