Podcast: Why Cops Aren't Learning How To Not Shoot People

In 2015 a man walked into a grocery store in Georgia, USA and started singing hymns. Frightened, an employee called the police. Just 35 seconds after a police officer arrived on the scene, the man, who was bipolar and suffered delusions, was shot dead. Had the police officer who handled the call had some training in de-escalation and in dealing with mentally ill people, the man could still be alive. 

De-escalation is a technique that too few US departments are adopting, and that implies policemen backing off, taking their time and using active listening methods when talking to the suspect, instead of reaching for their gun and shooting. This technique has proven efficient, as in fewer people die, but the thing is that de-escalation is not required in most states; it's left up to local departments to do the training or not. The reasons for this are many, starting with the old-fashioned way of thinking of some local departments' chiefs—one of them said that only through the passage of time can a policeman learn de-escalation—to the financial costs of getting training, and the lack of political support, what with the Trump presidency. 

There are police departments, though, where this approach is being implemented. For instance, in Minneapolis. A policewoman there, who had initially been taught the "ask, tell, make" method to make someone comply with her orders, spent about 35 minutes with an agitated homeless man, who was screaming at a crowd of people in a store that they stole his phone. The result? Nobody got hurt.