Officers are trained to handle volatile situations, says police expert
Terry Coleman says recent training involves calm approach
A Canadian expert in police training says recent shifts in education put new emphasis on handling volatile situations without the use of force.
Terry Coleman has worked with the Atlantic Police Academy in Summerside, P.E.I., on education and training in de-escalation and talking to people with mental health issues and helping with crisis intervention.
He acknowledges some fatalities are unavoidable but that police often have options to reach a peaceful resolution.
"Trying to use the minimum amount of force, if any use of force, to try and resolve the situation peacefully, so everyone goes home at night," said Coleman.
Coleman has no information about the fatal police shooting of 32-year-old Jeremy Stephens in Summerside on Sunday and he is not part of the independent review by the Serious Incident Response Team to determine what happened.
But he is an expert in communication training and non-physical intervention in policing.
Different approach to policing
Coleman worked as a police officer in Calgary for 25 years, then chief of police in Moose Jaw, Sask., and he's been an expert at police inquiries and inquests involving civilians who have died as a result of police shootings.
Training for officers in recent years now includes lower levels of force, such as taking someone's arm or talking to them in a non-threatening way, he said.
"Once the handgun has been pulled, things often don't go well," he said.
Family questions use of force
Stephens' sister Jannett Jones said doctors told her family Stephens was shot six times.
Jones said her family is questioning whether police had other options to restrain him that didn't involve guns.
She said Stephens had struggled with addiction issues but she did not consider him a violent person.
Summerside police said officers were attempting to arrest Stephens when he resisted with violence.
The importance of role playing
Coleman said live role playing situations is essential to training, which happens at the Atlantic Police Academy.
"You can learn, re-do it and be critiqued by experts," he said.
"That's the only way you can practise and learn in a situation where the consequences aren't bad," he said.
Coleman said other parts of the country use combined teams of police officer and mental-health workers. He said P.E.I. is small enough to try a model like that.
The P.E.I. government announced a suicide prevention strategy last week that includes plans to establish mobile crisis response units.
'Patience and time'
Coleman teaches police about the importance of preparation, patience and time. He says there needs to be an emphasis on a calm non-threatening approach to policing and for police agencies to recruit people who can take that approach.
He believes many fatal shootings in Canada by police could have ended differently.
"Quite frankly many of them could have been avoided," Coleman said.
"We stress that it requires patience and time.
"Some of these situations, the successful ones, have taken, many, many hours."
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