Police-Encounters-With-People-In-Crisis

36. At an institutional level, regular debriefing of police encounters with people in
crisis can assist the TPS in refining its procedures, training, and supervisory practices to
respond to trends in conduct or knowledge gaps of its members. The information
collected from debriefing sessions could be aggregated and anonymized, then analyzed
to identify training and supervisory needs across the Service, or within particular
divisions. Although the TPS carefully scrutinizes recommendations that result from
inquests and issue-specific external reviews, these mechanisms can take significant time
to reach conclusive results. A more systemic approach to debriefing all kinds of
incidents may provide the TPS with prompt feedback on the particular needs of its
members. Such an approach could engage both traditional in-person debriefing sessions
and technology-based feedback applications.
3. Concerns
37. A major concern for the TPS in connection with debriefing is confidentiality. The
actions of TPS members can be the subject of disciplinary proceedings, civil lawsuits,
and SIU/criminal proceedings, in addition to attracting media attention. If the notes or
recollections of officers participating in debriefings are compellable as evidence in
litigation, the resulting chill could prevent candid discussions of decision-making in
crisis situations and thwart the intended benefits of the debriefing process.
38. By way of example, the Metropolitan Police Service in London, England has a
mandatory debriefing policy after all incidents involving serious injury or death,
including paperwork that must be filed by a unit commander after any situation in
which an armed unit was deployed. Supervisors are responsible for debriefing
subordinate officers to identify both individual training and organizational learning
opportunities. However, the Metropolitan Police Service has encountered controversy
with the Independent Police Complaints Commissioner with respect to disclosure of
debriefing materials in criminal proceedings.
39. Another concern relating to debriefing is that the debriefing process may retraumatize
officers involved in more serious traumatic events. Encounters with people
in crisis that result in death or serious injury can have serious mental health effects on
police officers. The purpose of debriefing is to examine the judgment used under the
circumstances and to learn from both mistakes and successes, in turn developing the
individual officer and the Service more broadly.
40. An officer experiencing critical incident stress or other related effects could be
further traumatized by the debriefing experience, which would defeat one of the primary
goals of the exercise. In those cases, it may be preferable to debrief an incident with first
responders or supervisors who attended the scene but were less directly involved with
the person in crisis. Officers most directly affected by the incident might not be required
to participate, either at all, or until they regained their own mental or emotional health.
D. Performance evaluations
41. New constables undergo a series of performance evaluations with their coach
officers and supervisors during their initial months of service. Further, all members of
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