Managing conflicts is an integral aspect of law enforcement, but the many nuances of personal interactions can make it challenging and situations can quickly escalate to dangerous levels. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) is conducting research to learn more about these interactions, with a focus on de-escalation methods. The aim of this effort is to identify effective conflict resolution strategies by reviewing video footage of police encounters, coding them to classify behaviors and outcomes, and detecting patterns that can inform future training. To assist with this study, S&T's partners at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers (FLETC) asked the Dallas, Texas, Police Department and Smith County, Texas, Sheriff's Office to provide video footage of recent police encounters. "The footage they gave us included traffic stops, encounters with individuals in distress, suspicious person calls, encounters with homeless individuals, and more," said Dr. Laura Zimmerman, FLETC Senior Researcher. "The goal is to gather information from the footage about current practices used in the field. We want to learn what helps to keep a situation from escalating or what helps to de-escalate a situation. We're hoping to find behavioral consistencies across the video footage." FLETC is collaborating with the DHS Center of Excellence at Arizona State University's (ASU) Center for Accelerating Operational Efficiency to identify the verbal and physical behaviors police use to manage conflict and to potentially develop models that indicate patterns of response. Since the project kicked-off in May 2020, FLETC and researchers from ASU's School of Criminology and Criminal Justice have been completing the video coding and analysis process. When finished, they will identify training content based on the data, and expect to publish results for law enforcement and academic communities by mid-summer. | | | | |
U.S. Department of Homeland Security ·
www.dhs.gov · 202-282-8000
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