Police-Encounters-With-People-In-Crisis

19. Although it is beyond the scope of this Review to consider whether all of those
factors have been known to precede an attack on a police officer, it does appear that
symptoms of crisis, and even displays of fear, may be perceived by an officer trained in
the Use of Force Model as aggressive behaviours warranting an escalated police
response.
(b) Perception and tactical considerations
20. Perception and tactical considerations form the ring between the assess/plan/act
core and the range of police responses to the subject’s behaviour. The Model guidelines
indicate that an officer’s perception of the subject, the situation, and the accompanying
tactical considerations are a group of conditions that mediate between the inner two
circles of the Model and the responses available to the officer. Given that several force
options may be used at the same time, the training materials that accompany the Model
note that communication overlaps with other use of force options in the outer ring.
However, communication is not incorporated into the perception stage of the Model.
(c) Force options
21. The outer area of the Use of Force Model represents the force options available to
an officer in a potentially dangerous situation. The accompanying guidelines indicate
that use-of-force options range from an officer’s presence (which may itself induce
compliance) to communication skills, physical control, intermediate weapons and use of
lethal force. The guidelines describe communication as “verbal and non-verbal
communication to control a situation,” but give only one example of using
communication to ensure compliance, which is to speak the Police Challenge 17 when an
officer draws his or her firearm in response to a threat to life or bodily harm from
another person. Other types of communication, designed to achieve de-escalation (and
thus compliance) through dialogue and reassurance, are not suggested.
(d) Communication
22. The Model appears to separate communication from the continuous process of
assessment and planning at the centre of the Model, as well as the initial factors of
perception and tactical considerations that assist officers when assessing a situation and
planning a response. Although one stakeholder submitted that communication does not
have to be graphically represented as its own stage because it encircles the entire
process, the training materials that accompany the Model indicate that communication
is considered at the outset of the use-of-force analysis, not the outset of the assessment
by the officer.
23. The Use of Force Model characterizes communication as one of the response
options available to an officer. However, communication with a person in crisis—beyond
loudly and forcefully stated instructions to comply—is relevant to the entire use–offorce
assessment and response process. Attempts at calm dialogue with a person in
17
The Police Challenge is the verbal instruction given to a person in order to obtain compliance with police commands. Toronto
police officers are trained to say “Police – Don’t Move.” The Police Challenge and its implications are described in further detail
below.
Police Encounters With People in Crisis |199