Journalist – Historian – Speaker
Charles Huth, a Captain in the Kansas City PD, has written an outstanding essay taking apart two metaphors commonly employed by police trainers: The “warrior” and the “sheep/sheepdog/wolf” metaphor. Not only is he on point when it comes to the analysis itself and what it says about modern policing, but I was also struck that …
Discussions around police use of force and disabled civilians usually turn quickly to training. In Chicago, for example, several high profile deaths resulted in mandatory CIT training for all Chicago officers – in policy anyway. It’s not clear whether funds have been allocated and to what extent the training is ongoing, but that’s another story. …
Yesterday I wrote about an ID Card for autistic drivers, with links to similar stories. Now we have “autistic wrist bands.” These are well intentioned efforts to stop police from hurting neurodiverse people. There’s a better way, though, and that’s to train police not to hurt people who aren’t causing active threats. As always, I …
There are three new bills working their way through the Florida legislature on policing and disability. One of the interesting things about disability is that even people who refuse to consider most structural reforms to policing and reject the #BlackLivesMatter movement are still willing to push for reforms when it comes to disability. That’s actually …
My friend RC alerted me to this piece on a police training simulator for learning how to reduce misuse of force when encountering autistic people or people with various mental disabilities. It touts the virtues of the virtual playback versus role-playing-based training. Through the simulator, deputies are immersed in true-to-life scenarios — exactly the kind …
Nice article in the local paper on de-escalation training for Park Ridge law enforcement. Last year, a U.S. Justice Department grant secured by the Park Ridge Police Department allowed for officers to take crisis intervention training, a program that aims to prepare officers to deal with citizens struggling with a broad spectrum of mental health …
The Portland OR police department has been sanctioned by the DoJ for its handling of cases involving people with psychiatric disabilities. There’s been too many deaths, too many tasings, too much violence, too much ignorance. Now, Portland has announced a new policy. The Portland Police Bureau has drafted a much-expanded policy that stresses the need …