Case 7 – De-escalation: Protest

12 Debriefing, Extensions, and Resources

Note: Debriefing is done in role either in groups or as a whole class

Interpersonal

  • Sometimes we enter a situation with a predetermined agenda, or having made assumptions about the other players. How does this support and/or interfere with resolving an issue?
  • As the task force, what possible remediation or training might you recommend to the officers involved in this incident?
  • Having considered some of the reasons the officers behaved as they did, and perhaps having role played the aftermath in Scenario #2, how did you feel? What might you consider doing differently in a similar situation?

Issues

  • Power can be used, abused (intentionally) or misused (unintentionally). Carefully review the scenario, examining how each character may be using, abusing or misusing their power.
  • Could the standing orders to the officers have contributed to the escalation? How?
  • What might the professional relationship between the officers be? Do you think the officers’ working partnership might be impacted by this incident?

Additional Resources

Extensions

  • Hot Seating: In groups, take on the roles of the various participants and ask questions of each other in character:
    • Male officer’s position
    • Female officer’s position
    • Protester’s position
  • Consider what you learn about each character, and their motivation for behaving as they did in the video. Does the conversation alter your perspective of the characters? How?

Assignments

The following suggestions could be undertaken either as a group or individually. They could be written as reflections, offered for discussion, or submitted as assignments for grading.

  1. Based on the discussion in Scenario #1, create an outline of ideas to be part of a de-escalation training manual.
  2. Based on the discussion and notes from Scenario #2, consider how issues of perceived differential power might be added to the de-escalation training manual.
  3. Research to find various de-escalation techniques. Given the variety of situations officers might encounter (e.g., domestic abuse, mental health crisis, addiction crisis, etc.), consider which techniques might work best in a given situation.

Readings

License

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Exploring Interpersonal Dynamics Through Role Play Copyright © by Catherine Jenkins, Kevin Hobbs, & Joe Norris is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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