Over the last number of years many agencies have gone away from Use of Force Continuums. Now some agencies are being forced to go back to having a Use of Force Continuum by politicians and special interest groups who lack an understanding of these, like they do with the topics of de-escalation and implicit bias.  In my experience actually having a Use of Force Model may not be as big an issue as is how it is taught, explained and utilized. In this post I will share some of my thoughts on this topic, which apply whether you already have a Continuum or you are being force to go back to … [Read more...]

There is currently a lot of pressure on law enforcement agencies to do training in de-escalation and implicit bias. I have expressed my concerns before about the gross misunderstanding of the politicians, media and special interest groups about the concept of de-escalation and about the rush to do de-escalation and implicit bias training without a plan to integrate these concepts into the culture of the organization so learning actually occurs.  Professional communications skills, empathy, emotional intelligence and self-regulation in confrontational situations are all important skills … [Read more...]

One of my favorite writers, bloggers and thinkers is Seth Godin. I recently listened to an interview Tim Ferriss did with him a few years ago.  As always there were a lot of nuggets of wisdom shared by Seth during their interview. I want to share one of them today as it relates to trainers who are looking to, or already have started their own training businesses.  One of the pieces of advice I have shared with trainers over the past few years that asked for my insights on starting a training business is that you need to decide if: You want to build a training company where … [Read more...]

Words have power. As a trainer and a leader you need to pay attention to the words you use.  ‘Don’t’ is a word you should strive to eliminate from your vocabulary. Instead of telling people what not to do, communicate in positive terms what you want them to do. When you use the word don’t at the start of a sentence the other person’s mind has to determine what not to do so it actually imagines doing the less desirable thing. The mind can only hold one image at a time so it holds on to the image of the less desirable action. Every time you repeat the “don’t do X” instruction, they … [Read more...]

Seth Godin wrote a blog post recently titled Defending the status quo. The post cautioned us about our natural tendency to defend the status quo and fight to continue to do what we have been doing. There was a key line in that post, which summed up what many of us in law enforcement training may be feeling right now, “When the world changes, it’s tempting to fight hard to maintain the status quo that feels safe.” I am not sure this is so much a matter of believing that we cannot improve our training, as it is the fact that some special interest groups and politicians are trying to … [Read more...]

There have been a lot special interest groups calling for the law enforcement profession to have better trained and better educated police officers. I am all for providing more high quality, impactful, well delivered training for law enforcement professionals; that has been the focus of this weekly blog for over a decade and the Excellence in Training workshops for two decades.  The purpose of this post is to share my thoughts regarding the “Better Educated” element. For many people the term “Better Educated” means there should be a requirement for applicants to have a four-year … [Read more...]

We have all heard people in leadership positions state, “Our people are our greatest resource.” Unfortunately, in many agencies the employees, especially the front line personnel, are not treated as the greatest resource. My fear is that in today’s political climate with all the demands for “Police Reform” that many agencies will make the mistake of taking the position that the community (meaning external community) is their first priority.  The external community you serve has to a priority, but not the first priority. Your people have to be your first priority. Let me be clear. I am … [Read more...]

It is critical for law enforcement leaders and trainers to take every opportunity to educated the media and politicians and provide correction and clarification on some of the myths, misconceptions and misunderstandings.  Myth: De-escalation is words, and always works.  De-escalation is a result not a single tactic, and it is certainly not just words. The subject(s) involved in the event play a significant role in de-escalating any situation. Not every situation can be de-escalated. De-escalation is the goal of almost every officer in every interaction. When de-escalation … [Read more...]

With the current pressure on the policing profession to change the way we train and to do more training the natural response for many agencies is to rush to implement training to "Check the Box" as I cautioned about last week, or to seek out “Best Practices”. For a number of years I have been sharing a caution regarding Best Practices I picked up from leadership guru, speaker, trainer and best selling author Mark Sanborn.  Sanborn cautions against Best Practices as they always have three qualifiers: Best Practices that we know of.Best Practices for now.Best Practices given the … [Read more...]

Be cautious about succumbing to the pressure to, “Do more training in De-escalation, Implicit Bias and Community Policing.” and whatever other subjects are thrown into the current narrative. Succumbing to the pressure to get it done a.s.a.p. too often results in “tick the box” training. Agencies rush to put everyone through a 2, 4 or 8 hour class so they can tick the box and say, “Everyone has been trained in ________________ (fill in the blank.) There is a big difference between ‘being trained in’ and ‘having attended training’.  While "having attended training" can be a passive … [Read more...]