NHPD Revives Deescalation Training

The police department is preparing for protests gatherings this week after a verdict is announced in Minneapolis’s George Floyd case, as well as working on longer-term in-house training to avoid dangerous cases of officers’ use of force here at home.

Officials shared that information at a press event Monday held at the training academy in West Rock.

Ministers holding a separate press conference in Newhallville, meanwhile, argued that deescalation training won’t in itself solve a bigger problem with police officers’ disconnect from and fear of the community.

At the West Rock presser, Mayor Justin Elicker and Acting Chief Renee Dominguez said community protests in response to the verdict in Minneapolis Officer Derek Chauvin’s trial on charges of murdering George Floyd are anticipated and will be supported.

“We do not see historically people destroying property or becoming violent, and we don’t anticipate that happening,” Elicker said of New Haven protest in the past. 

“We support the right to protest. We support the right to demonstrate, and we will continue to support that. And we will continue to be prepared for if things go in a different way,” said Dominguez.

Dominguez and Elicker also announced that retired NHPD Lt Raymond Hassett, who in the past has come back to lead deescalation training for officers, will do so again. The training program, titled ​“The New Face of Connection,” was scheduled to begin last year but was halted because of the pandemic. The department kicked off the training in-person in March.

Elicker said the city is working with the department to make course an annual training for all officers.

Officers go through conflict management training in police academy with deescalation techniques, said Dominguez. The new training curriculum was uniquely developed by Hassett based on his 25 year experience with the NHPD.

The training is ​“all about bringing back the human into policing,” Hassett said.

The department last hosted a deescalation training course three years ago led by Hassett. Since then Hassett has made the training more advanced, he said.

Hassett’s hope is that the training will be one of many steps toward rebranding policing to be smart and empathetic to address community ​“trauma, history, and emotion.”

The training will aim to teach officers to mentally prepare before and during calls. Dominguez said her hope is that before an officer gets to a call they will ask, ​“How am I going to handle this situation? How am I going to do it with compassion? How am I going to let the person feel that they’ve been heard?”

Officers will be taught to take a step back and listen more to build a connection with the community to eventually lead toward establishing trust.

“Trust is the foundation we’re looking for. Trust is the foundation in customer service. We’re looking to build our bond, build our brand,” said Hassett.

The four-hour training is anticipated to be completed by June by all officers. The training is for the benefit of the officer and the public, said Hassett.

By the end of it, Hassett said, he hopes officers are left thinking to ​“realize that it’s better to be given control than to take control.”

Hassett’s strategy of listening more than talking can help a potential victim and complainant, he said. ​“Sometimes dealing with somebody in crisis, 12 words are maybe too many.”

Hassett has also hosted de-escalation trainings for frontline workers in hospitals and daycares.

Watch the clip below of the training course conducted Monday at the New Haven Police Training Facility with 14 officers.

Ministers: Cops Fear New Haveners

At a Monday morning presser at First Calvary Baptist Church on Dixwell Avenue, a group of ministers said more than a continuation of deescalation training is needed to improve police-community relations.

“We’ve been talking about deescalation training for a number of years. We’re not addressing the fear of the other [by officers] who fear African-Americans,” said the Rev. Steven Cousin. ​“Until you address the systemic racism and the fear that’s associated with this, we’re going to talk about this for months and years.”

The Rev. Boise Kimber spoke of how none of the city’s 10 district managers are black, and how the police department would benefit from having more officers of color who live in the city.

“This is more than deescalation training. You’ve got to be able to come into the community” without fear.

Cousin criticized the city’s new law banning gas stations from allowing operators of ATVs and dirt bikes from fueling up, and an attendant crackdown on dangerous operation of illegal vehicles. (Click here to read about the new law and about the crackdown, as well as the official rationale.)

“We have an issue of overpolicing the community. Here we are again criminalizing an activity,” he said. ​“We understand the noise. [But] we should be limiting the interaction between police officers and people of color.”

Cousin noted that ​“we have not seen one ATV rider cause a death of a pedestrian,” while drunk drivers of cars have killed New Haveners. (Click here to read about the most recent case.) ​“We’re not criminalizing all driving or refusing to sell gas” to operators of cars.

Click on the video to watch the full press conference.