The Academy: CMPD teaches crucial de-escalation techniques to recruits

CHARLOTTE — CMPD officers respond to all sorts of calls, and their first priority in many of them is to de-escalate situations.

Channel 9 Crime Reporter Hunter Saenz joined the newest class of recruits and learned how they try to do that at “The Academy.”

Lined up in the hall, recruits from Class 206 are getting ready to respond to their first 911 calls.

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“Count to 10, knock it and somebody will answer for you, OK?” explained an instructor

They aren’t real. Rather, they’re scenarios played out by real officers who have responded to very similar real-life calls.

We saw recruits enact one about two roommates feuding over who gets the TV as one moves out.

“I just want to take the TV and go. He doesn’t even watch it!” a role player said.

The recruits separate the roommates as they try to de-escalate the situation, this time through negotiation.

“Now did you pay for the TV?” one recruit asks.

“We paid for it together,” a role player responds.

“Now would you be willing to pay the cost of the TV with each other?” the recruit says.

“I don’t care, but I’m taking the TV today,” the role player says in response.

“You’re not taking my TV, Dan! You haven’t paid any bills in two months, Dan! Two months, Dan,” said the other role player.

The recruits meet up to discuss where each roommate is at and talk potential solutions. Then, they go back.

“Like dude, I got the wrestling every day. That’s my jam,” a role player told a recruit.

“Wrestling, I hear you. I like wrestling too,” the recruit said.

That slight connection there is important, gaining trust.

“So if he gives him some cash, he’s willing to part with the TV and he can have it,” the recruit said to the role player.

The recruit is working to help de-escalate and find a solution.

“He’s willing to do a payment plan with him,” the recruit said.

Afterward, they are graded and critiqued. This team was told they did “really good.”

“This training is going to be with them for the rest of their career, and, you know, like when we think about how important communication de-escalation is, it’s 98% of the job,” said Brandon McKinney, an instructor with the Community Policing Crisis Response Team.

McKinney gave the lesson on this critical skill.

“We have to be able to communicate and assess the situation. And if the situation is escalating, we have to be able to de-escalate in order to solve the problem,” McKinney said.

“It’s about time. It’s about time! I’ve called 911 about four times. Why’d it take you so long to get here?” said a role player in another scenario.

In this scenario, a woman was heated about her car being towed while she was at brunch.

“So you got here at 11 a.m. and they took the S500?” the recruit asked.

“Mmhmm; white with black rims,” the role player said.

But in this roleplay, that’s too much investigation.

“Let’s think about what we can and should be doing to bring her down,” the instructor said.

“We can find the name of that hauling company, and we can get that information to you. And if you’d like, we can give you a ride to where they towed your car,” the recruit said.

“Thank you!” the role player said.

And bingo, a solution was found that calmed this 911 caller.

“She starts to, ‘Oh, what took you so long?’” the instructor said.

“Ma’am, I’m so sorry about that. We’ve been tied up on ... whatever the case may be, so I really do apologize for your wait, but you got us now,” the instructor said as an example.

The instructor says that starts the process of building a rapport and begins the de-escalation.

“These people don’t know how to be police officers,” McKinney said.

But with this training, they are getting there, developing the skills to answer any type of call.

“Looking at some of the experiences they’ve had before and trying to put everything together with the training they get in this block is fairly fascinating. And then, you know, we’re able to change that and help them mold and become, you know, very successful police officers,” McKinney said.

Some of those de-escalation calls include domestic violence, which are some of the most dangerous calls an officer can respond to.

Next time on “The Academy,” Hunter will show you how officers are trained to respond to mental health calls and the specialized teams that often respond with a trained clinician.