Examining the Impact of De-escalation Training on Police Officer Attitudes: A Pilot Evaluation

By Gabrielle T. Isaza

De-escalation training has been widely promoted as a best practice to reduce harms during police-citizen encounters, particularly as it relates to police use of force. Despite this wide promotion, very little is known about the training’s effectiveness. This dissertation explores the impacts of a well-known de-escalation training, Integrating Communications, Assessment, and Tactics (ICAT), on a sample of police officers in Southwest Ohio. Specifically, this dissertation examines changes in officer attitudes and perceptions as well as self-reported use of the training using T-Test comparisons, ordinary least square regressions, descriptive statistics, and an examination of focus group discussions. Pilot survey instruments were developed and tested for use in future de-escalation training evaluations. This study found significant changes in officer attitudes related to the use of force, understanding of persons in crisis, and officer confidence in handling critical incidents in the hypothesized directions. However, minor levels of training decay were detected, indicating the importance of continual reinforcement of the training curriculum. Additionally, counter-intuitive findings related to one component of the training were found. Nonetheless, these empirical results demonstrated that ICAT training influenced officers in a way that made them more amenable to the principles and practices of de-escalation. This study adds to the very limited evidence base on de-escalation training effects for police. These findings are critical because the effective use of de-escalation techniques to diffuse conflicts can save lives and reduce the injuries of both citizens and police officers.

Cincinnati: University of Cincinnati, 2020. 200p.