EP 20 'Assessing the Impact of Deescalation Training on Police Behavior' with Dr. Robin Engel

With thousands of policing agencies scrambling in recent years to change use of force policies and provide 'deescalation' training to their officers and millions if not billions of dollars being spent to provide this training, do we know if it is even making a difference to impact officer performance on the street? Interestingly, despite widespread promotion and proliferation of deescalation training, no research has empirically demonstrated that this training is reducing use of force frequency or severity in the field. In addition, it is unknown if these policy reactions and unproven deescalation training programs are having unintended negative consequences that may increase injuries to officers or citizens. In this fascinating and instructive interview, we speak with Dr. Robin Engel who led a research project with the Louisville Metropolitan Police Department (LMPD) to evaluate the impact of their agency's deescalation program. This study,  'Assessing the Impact of Deescalation Training on Police Behavior: Reducing Police Use of Force in the Louisville Metro Police Department' (published in Criminology & Public Policy) determined that the LMPD deescalation program significantly reduced the frequency of use of force incidents as well as led to reductions in citizen and officer injury rates and severity. This interview contains very important policy and training implications for agencies implementing deescalation or seeking to evaluate the effectiveness of their existing deescalation program. Dr. Engel serves as Senior Vice President at the National Policing Institute, following over 25 years in academic positions within higher education institutions. As an award-winning researcher, she has partnered with dozens of police agencies in the U.S. and internationally, served as Principal Investigator for over a hundred research studies and projects, and ranked among the top academics nationally in criminal justice/criminology. From 2015 – 2019, she served as Vice President for Safety and Reform at the University of Cincinnati, where her executive duties included oversight of daily operations and successful implementation of comprehensive police reforms in the aftermath of a fatal police shooting of an unarmed motorist. As a top scholar and trusted leading authority in police science, Dr. Engel oversees the Institute’s vast scientific investments designed to translate and integrate research into practice.