Council calls for Sheriff’s Office to report on steps to enhance training

September 11, 2017

Summary

Detail development of antibias, violence de-escalation, and crisis intervention training program

Story

The Metropolitan King County Council is calling upon the King County Sheriff’s Office (KCSO) to provide enhanced, culturally appropriate antibias, violence de-escalation, and crisis intervention training to deputies and staff. It today unanimously adopted legislation that calls on the Sheriff’s office, in cooperation with the executive and the Office of Law Enforcement Oversight (OLEO), to make sure that deputies and staff receive the necessary training, with the goal of improving relations with local residents and communities.

“Losing someone in such a tragic way deeply scars us all,” said Council Chair Joe McDermott. “Ensuring that our local law enforcement have the skills and training necessary to respond appropriately, especially when someone is most in need of aid, is a necessary step toward achieving safety and security for all residents.”

The adopted motion also calls for the KCSO to develop strategies to improve use-of-force and interactions with individuals who are in behavioral health crisis or from disadvantaged communities, including creation a Crisis Intervention Training Coordinator position to provide support and expertise to KCSO deputies and staff.

The motion focuses on three types of training for the KCSO:

Justice Based Policing (Procedural Justice): which is designed to help increase police legitimacy by providing officers with the tools that focus on fairness in the processes when interacting with the public.

Violence De-Escalation: Developing both tactical and strategic skills that will reduce the likelihood of injury to the public, increase officer safety and mitigate the immediacy of potential or ongoing threats.

Crisis Intervention: Equipping police and other first responders with the training needed to enable them to respond most effectively to individuals in crisis and to help those individuals access the most appropriate and least restrictive services while preserving public safety.

The motion calls for the KCSO to present their results to the Council by December 1.