De-escalation for Law Enforcement

This course is geared towards law enforcement.  It presents different techniques and communication skills an officer can use to de-escalate a situation without compromising officer safety.

This course utilizes some of the most up to date videos to show both good and not so good efforts of de-escalation.

As we have seen, just because we are within law and policy does not necessarily result in a positive outcome in the eyes of the public.  Using these skills, officers can minimize risk to themselves as well as the suspect.  They can also have the most positive outcome/interaction in the eyes of the community, avoiding bad press.

I developed this course with the assistance of Thomas Gleason.

Thomas Gleason, a retired Captain, spent thirty years serving in city, county and state law enforcement. He began his career in Alabama as a patrolman in New Brockton, Alabama. He then moved to Florida and accepted a position as a Sheriff’s Deputy in Polk County, where he became a member of the Emergency Response Team (SWAT).

This lead to a position with the City of Lakeland where he gained experience as a patrolman, a patrol supervisor, a field training officer, a School Resource Officer, and a Detective Sergeant over the missing persons, juvenile crimes, and sexual abuse crimes unit, Shocap programs.. In 1999, he developed and delivered a presentation entitled “Law Enforcement’s Response to Critical Incidents at Schools and Ways to Handle Critical Incidents” to the Florida Department of Education Statewide Safety Summit. While working with the City of Lakeland he also assisted in founding the Domestic Abuse Response Team, was one of the first officers in the Lakeland Community Oriented Policing Program, served as Chairman of the District 14 Juvenile Justice Board, served as Chairman of the Polk County Juvenile Justice Counsel, and served as the Second Vice-President of Florida Association of School Resource Officers from 1997-2000. In 2000, he was chosen as part of a team to teach Dynamics of Domestic Violence to Moldavian police officers and volunteers. In 2001 he attended Crisis Intervention training and developed and taught the City’s in-service training to all sworn officers.

He then expanded his experience by accepting a position with Florida Department of Law Enforcement, Capitol Police, as their Lieutenant of Special Operations. In this position he supervised the Capitol Police Canine Unit, Explosives Unit and the Investigations Unit. He also coordinated training, recruiting, and hiring of new officers. He trained officers with Capitol Police in the areas of proper critical incident response, use of firearms, and observing and eliminating armed security threats. During his tenure there he was involved in drafting and implementing the Capitol Complex Operations Plan for former Governor Jeb Bush’s 2003 inauguration and in preparing the Operations Plan for the visit by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his security detail.

In 2009 he was a subject matter expert on the Florida Department of Law Enforcement’s Standards and Training Commission Committee which was tasked with reviewing and revamping the Basic Recruit Training Curriculum for the State of Florida.

In 2009, the Florida Department of Financial Services offered him a position as Captain over training and acquisitions. He accepted this position and became responsible for developing and overseeing training for the one-hundred and fifty detectives working throughout the State of Florida who investigate insurance fraud. During his tenure there he oversaw the transition from Sig. Sauer 9 MM to Glock .40 caliber and the training of all officers after the transition.

His passion for law enforcement training also led him to the position of Coordinator of the Law Enforcement Academy for the Florida Public Safety Institute from 2006-2009.

In 2014, he was an instructor at the High Liability Instructor’s Conference held at Florida Public Safety Institute teaching Handling Veterans, Officer Safety Response, and Managing a Training Unit.

He has been an instructor for the Florida Public Safety Institute, Department of Justice in the Valor program. He has experience teaching in the areas of: human diversity; patrol procedures; first aid; firearms; police pursuit policies; instructor techniques, and handling the mentally ill, police officer safety, De-escalation Skills.

Thomas Gleason holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Criminal Justice and a Master’s Degree in Education. He has published two articles dealing with police training and domestic violence.