Police-Encounters-With-People-In-Crisis

30. All TPS members are trained in the techniques and process of debriefing through
their participation in classroom education and dynamic training scenarios at the OPC
and the TPC, including as part of annual in-service training at the TPC. Incident
debriefing is explicitly linked to the issue of officer mental health, and is taught as a
component of critical incident stress in the OPC’s firearm training course. The TPC’s
annual requalification training includes debriefing as part of its judgment development
training, specifically with respect to powers of arrest, threat perceptions,
communication skills, tactics, less-than-lethal force options, and justification for use of
force, among other topics. 27
2. Advantages
31. The importance of debriefing incidents—both those that end positively and those
that could have had a better outcome—is well-recognized in much of the literature
considered by the Review.
32. Regular debriefing is essential to reinforcing the messages taught by the OPC and
TPC. Debriefing can be done informally by an officer’s partner or team member
immediately after a less-serious incident, or conducted formally by a supervisor or in a
group in response to a more serious encounter. Ultimately, what matters is that realworld
incidents are used to emphasize the conduct expected of an officer, foster high
professional standards, discuss lessons learned, and explore the officer’s perceptions of
the subject, situation, and available responses.
33. At an individual level, debriefing provides officers with an opportunity to
examine decisions made during encounters that are often fast-paced and charged with
high levels of anxiety for everyone involved. If their decision-making during crisis
situations differed from their training, debriefing allows officers to assess the reasons
for that difference, and to consider how those choices may have affected the outcomes.
34. Conversely, if officers do not have the opportunity to debrief an encounter they
had with a person in crisis, they may develop less constructive de-escalation techniques.
The danger is that a lack of self-analysis or external feedback will lead to poor responses
that are reinforced through repeated behaviour. The Review heard that there is also the
possibility that an officer who is not debriefed after an incident with a negative outcome
may “self-justify” his or her actions by developing an alternative recollection of the
situation—a result that neither helps the officer develop skills, nor helps the TPS as a
whole, since the institution’s success is largely dependent on public confidence.
35. An officer who is given the opportunity to debrief after successfully de-escalating
a crisis situation may receive immediate, positive feedback that will reinforce his or her
training and instincts with respect to effective communication techniques. Similarly, the
information collected by supervisors on members with effective crisis de-escalation
skills could be used to inform future performance reviews, promotional assessments,
and service awards.
27
Toronto Police College, “Course Training Standard: In-service training course – Uniform” (2013) at 7, 9, 21, 23.
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