Sioux City Police Department aims to defuse tense encounters with active listening and empathy skills
×
Sign Up Today and Support Local Journalism
Enjoy more articles from Sioux City’s Most Trusted Information Source. Subscribers can log in for unlimited digital access
Log in Sign up {{featured_button_text}}
{{featured_button_text}}
SIOUX CITY — People don’t normally have positive feelings while being pulled over in a traffic stop, and even less so when they’re being arrested.
To prevent emotionally charged encounters from devolving into something far uglier, Sioux City Police officers are trained in Verbal Judo, a rhetorical technique used by the department to persuade a person to comply with an officer.
It is, in effect, a form of what’s commonly referred to as “de-escalation training,” a process that aims to reduce violence or conflict between police and subjects they interact with.
Often this means an officer will frame a command as a request, or an opportunity to collaborate with the officer.
“An example of collaboration would be, ‘Hey sir, could I speak with you?'” said Sioux City Police Officer Andrew Dutler, who conducts much of the department’s Verbal Judo training. Dutler said the training is generally effective, though he noted that it doesn’t work perfectly in every situation.
De-escalation training has been the subject of renewed interest over the past month and a half, after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis in late May. In June, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds signed a package of police reforms into law, including a requirement for police de-escalation and bias training.
Dutler described Verbal Judo as “an empathy-based communication method, to generate voluntary compliance.” Officers typically use these skills daily in their interactions with the public.
“Everything that we do at our department now, and has been for quite some time, is based on verbal de-escalation principles,” Dutler said.
Another element of the program involves “active listening,” which is another means of forming a connection with someone.
“Which means, sometimes summarizing what they’re saying to you, reflecting back maybe some feelings that the other person may be experiencing,” Dutler said. “You know — ‘Ma’am, it sounds like you’re feeling sad that you just lost your father; I want to make sure that I’m here with you to help you through that.'”
Rookie officers take an eight-hour course on Verbal Judo.
Sgt. Steve TenNapel, who leads the department’s training programs, said that perhaps once or twice a week, someone in the department uses force requiring a mandatory written report. Examples of such actions include aggressively tackling a subject, or the use of a baton.
TenNapel estimated that 90 percent of all SCPD interactions with a subject who doesn’t want to be arrested are handled through verbal compliance rather than force. Incidents that are de-escalated verbally require no written report beyond a criminal complaint.
“So, it’s kind of hard to document our successes,” TenNapel said with a laugh.
Per TenNapel’s recollection, the last time a Sioux City police officer shot at a suspect was about a year ago, when an officer fired on a car that was trying to run him down. The car was hit, but not the driver.
The most recent fatal police shooting in Sioux City was in December 2016, when a Sioux City Police officer shot and killed a Dakota Dunes man after a soured traffic stop on Myrtle Street. The officer was cleared of any wrongdoing in February 2017.
“It’s not often you hear about our department having to use force, or using force,” Dutler said. “It does happen. And there are times when a situation presents where it’s necessary.”
SCPD officers receive training in a sort of immersion simulator, in which they stand in front of a set of large screens with a 180-degree view. The screens show various scenarios that could play out in real-life police encounters, and the officers are equipped with a simulated handgun, taser and pepper spray.
The VirTra Systems training simulator was purchased by the SCPD and Woodbury County Sheriff’s Office back in 2018, after receiving a $100,000 grant from Missouri River Historical Development (MRHD).
Some of the scenarios in the interactive video training present little opportunity for an officer to calm the situation with words.
In one scenario, a man has gunned down several nuns and a sheriff’s deputy before he starts running toward a school. In this case, the officer would probably be justified in shooting the man in the back as he flees, because he represents an extreme, unmitigated danger.
In another, a man and woman are fighting outdoors. The man at first asks the officer to go away, and then runs off. After he takes off, the woman brandishes a dirty syringe and threatens to jab the officer in the neck. While shooting is not an ideal response, TenNapel stressed that the officer must not allow himself or herself to be stabbed with the syringe.
Less-lethal options, such as the taser or pepper spray, may be appropriate in that particular scenario.
TenNapel controls the actions of the fictional characters on screen and the outcome of the encounters, which can include the officer being shot. But it is possible, with some quick thinking and thoughtful words, to soothe the tension and get the suspect to drop the syringe, or other weapon. TenNapel decides whether the officer’s conduct in the simulation merits an optimal outcome.
“If the officer uses good verbal skills, is able to communicate, then I can de-escalate the situation and it doesn’t turn into a use of force,” TenNapel said.
“Of course, some of the situations are, there’s nothing you can do, you’re going to get in a shootout with this dude,” he added.
Thomas Mrozla, an assistant professor of criminal justice at the University of South Dakota, said what is colloquially known as de-escalation training has no set definition.
“There’s 18,000 police departments (in the U.S.), or close to it. And de-escalation, if you ask 10 different departments what de-escalation is, you’re going to get 10 different answers, so it’s going to be practiced differently from department to department,” Mrozla said.
By its very nature, de-escalation training bears little resemblance to police training of the past, which tended to emphasize a sort of “warrior mentality.”
“It generally runs counter to what traditional policing is,” Mrozla said.
Mrozla noted that it is not yet clear how effective police de-escalation training has been at preventing fatal or injurious outcomes in law enforcement encounters. One systematic review called de-escalation “a promising practice; that is, a well-intended police reform whose consequences are largely unknown.”
“This is where we have very little knowledge, on the research side of things. We know almost nothing about the long-term effectiveness of de-escalation training, and police training as a whole,” Mrozla said. “It has a lot of potential.”
View Comments
+3
Local news
When 21-year-old Chris A. Chernock was hired in 1980, he became the youngest officer hired by the South Sioux City Police Department since at least the 1930s.
+5
Local news
“Unity in Prayer,” organized by the group Unity in the Community in coordination with the Woodbury County Sheriff’s Department, the Sioux City Police Department and the NAACP, was held in response to the death in police custody of George Floyd.
+15
Local news
SIOUX CITY — Hundreds of demonstrators marched Friday afternoon from Sioux City’s Cook Park to the Sioux City Police headquarters building an…
Education
Chad Krastel said at Sioux City School Board meetings in February that his 4-year-old daughter began exhibiting troubling new behaviors after she was assaulted by a 6-year-old girl at the Beyond The Bell program at Leeds Elementary School last fall.
Local news
Enjoy the galleries featuring all of our archival looks back at Sioux City history, spanning auto dealers to corn palaces, right here.
+3
State and regional
The planned hookup of Sioux Center and nearby Hull to the system is still a little more than two years away, but as crews continue to lay pipe, the completion the long-awaited pipeline that will deliver water is starting to feel closer.
State and regional news
A legislative panel voted unanimously Friday to approve the plan by Iowa’s top election official to send absentee ballot request forms to all …
State and regional news
VAN METER, Iowa — Gov. Kim Reynolds announced Friday that she would override local school districts and require students to spend at least h…
+22
Siouxland History
The Woodbury County Courthouse, located at the southeast corner of Seventh and Douglas streets, opened in 1918. Take a look at the building th…
