Some Bexar County deputies soon will learn a new technique for de-escalating situations and restraining people as law enforcement throughout the country reassess use-of-force policies in the wake of high-profile, in-custody deaths.
Called the CALM approach, the new tactic focuses on employing de-escalation-style communication when deputies interact with unarmed, violent individuals, officials said.
It includes a restraint technique that takes into account the well-being of both the person and the officer.
CALM is an acronym that summarizes parts of the approach: communication, active physical control maneuvers, lateral recovery restraint and minimization.
On Oct. 28, the Sheriff’s Office will be the first law enforcement agency to go through the program.
“We are optimistic that this will become the new normal and the new way of doing things,” said Sheriff Javier Salazar.
The 100ClubSA, an organization that supports law enforcement families, is offering scholarships to deputies to attend the inaugural classes.
Salazar said the organization is paying $10,000 for the training of 40 deputies, which includes about half of the mental health unit, deputies from the jail’s Special Emergency Response Team, or SERT, and deputies from the special operations team.
“In the jail is where use of force happens,” Salazar said. “The SERT team is well-represented in the first class and we want them to have it to a larger extent.”
He said the course is part of the first phase of potentially taking on the approach for deputies, and that he wishes he could commit to putting the whole agency through the training.
“If it’s something we can afford later on down the road, absolutely,” he said.
Richard Smith, chief consultant with Con10gency Consulting LLC, which created the program, said the approach will help officers identify components of mental illness they are likely to confront and give them effective strategies to de-escalate situations.
He said the program will combat recent tension between police and the community over accountability, compassion and justice for “both sides of the conversation.”
Con10gency is a San Antonio-based consulting group made up of former and current first responders who provide training and resources to help law enforcement, EMTs, firefighters and even civilians survive in a critical incident.
Smith said the goal of the program is to help officers learn how to continue de-escalating during and after an incident with the least amount of force necessary, even if a physical confrontation occurs.
“We needed something we could pass off to these officers to make them safer,” Smith said, explaining he used techniques from his time as a hostage negotiator with the San Antonio Police Department to build the training.
“When you start calling a SWAT team, there is a high risk of injury,” Smith said. “Mental illness isn’t a crime. It doesn’t mean you’ve broken the law. It just means you have some challenges that you deal with. But we, as law enforcement, have to understand those challenges.”
The training includes, nonimpact physical control techniques, medical assessment and life-saving first aid, said
Salazar said Smith called him to show him the new process that was developed. Some cadets who recently went through an orientation class caught on quickly, he said.
“I think this is going to be the next big thing,” Salazar said. “He showed us the training. It’s very simple. To me, I honestly feel like its going to be catching on.”
The approach includes a technique called the lateral recovery restraint, which can be used on a handcuffed individual.
The restraint avoids putting weight or pressure on a person’s face, neck, chest and shoulders while also allowing the individual to breathe and recover after running or fighting, according to Smith.
“The heart rate normalizes quicker,” Salazar said. “If you handcuff a suspect after a prolonged struggle and after running through brush and jumping fences, then you put them face down … next thing you know you have a dead suspect because of positional asphyxia or excited delirium. This teaches deputies to monitor for that.”
The sheriff said the restraint is not a take-down, but a safe hold. It would not be used on someone who is armed, as was the case in the fatal incident involving combat veteran Damian Lamar Daniels.
On Aug. 25, Daniels was shot to death by a sheriff’s deputy who went to his home for a welfare check. Daniels’ mental distress prompted four calls to the Sheriff’s Office in a span of 25 hours prior to the shooting.
Since Daniels’ death, the Sheriff’s Office formed a team of mental health professionals and deputies — called the SMART initiative — to respond to low-level mental health calls.
While SMART and CALM are separate initiatives, Salazar said both are part of the department’s effort to re-examine its use-of-force tactics. It also is reviewing the purchase of more body cameras for deputies, chokehold bans, no-knock search warrants, and duty to intervene policies.
Salazar said the Sheriff’s Office officially banned no-knock warrants last month because they have not been used for some time.
He said he hopes to have more deputies trained when they can find more funding for the course, as well as have deputies become certified as trainers to lessen the cost to taxpayers.
“It’s just part of evolving,” Salazar said. “I’ve said it before, that with all of the things being asked of law enforcement changes in policy and tactics, I think we’re going to be on right side of history at Sheriff’s Office. We’ve made drastic changes to the way we do things and we’re going to continue to do that.”
Jacob Beltran is a reporter covering San Antonio and Bexar County. To read more from Jacob, become a subscriber. jbeltran@express-news.net | Twitter: @JBfromSA
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