Verbalization De-escalation Grid
January 28th, 2010
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You should always attempt to gain voluntary compliance through selected verbal strategies. However, your personal safety is the highest priority. Your initial verbalization to an aggressive individual should be to slow down the conflict event. Attempt to calm the individual and give them clear directions and attempt to explain your actions if the event allows. Redirect the individual’s anger to the past. Utilize L.E.A.P.S. (Listen, Empathize, Ask, Paraphrase, Summarize) “We can work this out,” “We can come up with a solution,” “John, stop and think about how this will turn out later.” Read more…
When an officer recognizes the type of violence he is facing, he can customize his tactics for de-escalating it on the spot. By taking a general strategy and customizing it to specific tactics, he meets the needs of the moment. In doing this he greatly increases the odds of the situation being resolved without violence. However, not all situations can be resolved non-violently as some may preach. An inmate may want you to place your hands on them for various reasons one being; they think you can’t take them. Though we always attempt to resolve situations without violence and attempt to gain voluntary compliance we have to understand the environment we work in and that violence, intimidation and pain are a reality. 
So how well do you think you did? Let’s find out… Are you and the courts in agreement about what constitutes lawful use of force? Check your answers: 
Every day, law enforcement and corrections officers face danger while carrying out their responsibilities. When dealing with a dangerous or unpredictable situation, law enforcement officers usually have very little time to assess that particular response to resistance and determine the proper response. In this training article good training can enable the officer to react properly to the threat or possible threat and respond with the appropriate tactics to address the situation, possibly including some level of force, if necessary, given the circumstances. 
We wanted to write an article on a topic that you might have thought that you never would read about in print. This article is going to discuss how and when to use deadly force in a correctional facility and most importantly how to defend your actions. Since most corrections officers are not trained or equipped with weapons designed to deliver deadly force the techniques we are going to discuss will need to be unconventional. The following information is the kind of stuff we talk about before roll call when we hear about an assault on an officer from the previous shift. This type of violent assault against a corrections officer could happen anywhere. It could even happen in your facility. These life threatening assaults could happen to a friend or someone who you went to the academy with or it could happen to you. Hopefully it’s doesn’t end up like the incident referenced below with an officer being killed. 
An officer, who is well liked and respected by his peers, returns from a well deserved break at 0230. The malicious darkness looms of what seems like an ordinary and routine third shift in the facility. But for him it’s a restless night and he knows that time will continue to drag. He wonders if his shift will end uneventful and after only eight hours or if he will be mandated to work first shift. He remembers the day an operational manager once told him that he was going to go places within the department. As quickly as the promise of his big promotional chance came, it vanished just a fast. Politics, idle talk, becoming a union activist, and not knowing who the resourceful players are has sent him down another path. In the darkness of a lonely midnight shift that leads to nowhere, he contemplates his current situation, his future. It is then that the exhaustion overwhelms him and even though he is comfortable, he begins to sweat. 
I thought that I knew how to verbally de-escalate individuals and generate voluntary compliance through my emanation of authority, that is, until my first day with inmates. When I was a police officer I was very confident in my weapons systems and had a clear understanding of the use of force continuum and where I stood as it related to my abilities. Verbal de-escalation was just a required term of action that I placed into my reports in order to justify the physical slam that just occurred. 
I work in a most hostile environment within a maximum security juvenile prison in Ohio. My environment is one in which I deal with over 300 violent aggressive youth ages 16 to 21 that have been convicted of crimes that would rival that of any adult institution. Officers within our fence are required to utilize force to accomplish institutional security and maintain order at least five times a day. On a bad day, I have seen reportable incidents of over six incidents per shift. After these incidents I often look back in confidence of my law enforcement career knowing that every use of force was not only justified, required, and most of all, within reason. 
You have just been involved in a stressful and violent situation. Your body has just had a major surge of adrenaline and other chemicals that will be coursing through your system for hours. Now it is time to set down and start writing what transpired. Depending on the severity of the incident will effect your recollection of the episode and the individual clarity will not come into focus for several hours after the violent situation.