Mayor Steven M. Fulop and Public Safety Director James Shea announced the implementation of de-escalation training for all police officers on the Jersey City Police Department
This comes as a part of the Administration’s latest investment in enhancing policing policies and procedures to better manage crisis encounters for the betterment and safety of residents as well as the officers and those they encounter in stressful and challenging situations.
According to Jersey City officials, the program will re-train officers to confidently and competently make the best decisions to ensure more positive outcomes when placed in a life-endangering situation.
The million-dollar investment will repurpose funds recently refunded to the city for COVID-19 testing to expand tactical awareness and communications training currently implemented in the JCPD’s Emergency Service and Counterterrorism Units.
City Officials state that this will now be mandatory for all uniform members of the department to ensure maximum safety for officers and those they encounter in various demanding situations.
The de-escalation training will also be made available to residents and all others interested in observing the techniques being taught.
“Consistent with the Mayor's Pledge I signed Day 1, we are making changes where necessary, from amending our Use of Force general orders to forming an ad-hoc review committee to now expanding de-escalation training," Mayor Fulop said. "We are committed to providing our officers with the best possible training, and the expansion of this training to all officers will greatly benefit the community and meet the growing need for officers to hone their crisis management skills to proactively avoid dangerous situations in the future.”
The dual-pronged, de-escalation training program will apply two separate disciplines over the next 8 months.
The first, Verbal De-escalation and Crisis Communication Program will be taught by retired NYPD officer Jack Cambria, who has conducted in-service training for international and federal enforcement agencies and will emulate best practices from cities around the world.
The second, conducted by Tomahawk Strategic Solutions, will utilize interactive training to focus on strategies and approaches for police officers addressing hostile situations.
“We have a debt to our officers if we’re asking them to police in these difficult times, we owe them the best possible training we can provide,” Director Shea said. “Residents have requested this type of training out of regards to the public, and for the officers themselves. We have listened to their requests in an effort to further de-escalation efforts for all situations the JCPD encounters on a daily basis.”
The implementation of de-escalation training will further the Administration’s recent efforts to reassess the JCPD’s policies. Council President Joyce Watterman recently worked with Mayor Fulop to form an ad-hoc committee and provide the next steps on police reform.
“Now is the time for us to focus on what we’re doing here in Jersey City and how we can make changes and improvements within our policies for everyone’s benefit,” Council President Joyce Watterman said.
According to city officials, the training will also focus on the historical experiences with policing to address working on self-awareness and approach of officers’ state of mind to ensure they have the training to utilize all tactics available to make the best decisions and avoid de-escalation when safe and feasible, and train officers to use force as a last resort even when lawful.
The courses will be implemented on a regular basis once the first round of training is completed by all officers from rookies up to the Police Chief.
The resolution to approve the vendor contract for de-escalation and other similar training will be presented to the City Council at an upcoming meeting.