Does De-Escalation Training Actually Reduce Police Use of Force? New Research Reveals a Critical Gap (Re-blog)

(Re-posted from Dr. Nix’s website)

Like Phil Connors waking up to Sonny & Cher’s “I Got You Babe” in Groundhog Day, calls for police reform seem to repeat themselves endlessly throughout American history.

One of the most popular proposed solutions of late has been de-escalation training. The logic seems straightforward: teach officers better communication skills, and they’ll be less likely to use force.

But here’s the thing: our forthcoming research suggests it’s not that simple. 🤔

📊 What We Already Knew (Sort Of)

Previous studies on de-escalation training have given us mixed results. Some showed reductions in use of force, others showed no treatment effect. But here’s what was missing: almost no one was actually measuring whether officers were using the skills they learned.

It’s like baking cookies blindfolded, then wondering why your cookies don’t taste so good.

🔬 What We Did Differently

Our team (Kyle McLean, Trey Bussey, myself, Jeff Rojek, and Geoff Alpert) conducted a randomized controlled trial with the Virginia Beach Police Department. We:

✅ Randomly assigned officers to either receive de-escalation training or serve as a control group
✅ Watched hundreds of hours of body-worn camera footage using systematic social observation
✅ Actually measured the “middle step”: Did trained officers communicate differently?
✅ Tracked use of force incidents from administrative records

💡 What We Found

The Good News: The training worked! Officers who received de-escalation training demonstrated better communication tactics in their interactions with citizens. They were using the skills they learned.

Yeah, but: Despite improved communication, we saw no reduction in use of force incidents.

This doesn’t mean the training failed. It means something more nuanced is happening.

🤷 So… What’s Going On?

Think of it this way: better communication skills are like having a really good GPS system in your car. The GPS can provide you with accurate directions, warn you about traffic, and suggest alternate routes. But if your destination is still 300 miles away, that GPS isn’t going to magically teleport you there.

De-escalation training is likely teaching officers valuable interpersonal skills. But use of force incidents are rare events influenced by many factors beyond just communication:

• The specific situation and threat level
• Individual citizen behavior
• Environmental factors
• Department policies and culture
• The nature of the calls officers respond to

Our findings align with a growing pattern in the research: de-escalation training can improve intermediary behaviors (communication, empathy, tactical approaches) but isn’t consistently reducing use of force rates.

🎯 What This Means for Policy & Research

For Police Departments

Keep training! Better communication between police and citizens is valuable on its own. It can reduce tension in encounters and perhaps even build trust in the long run.

But don’t expect it to be a silver bullet for reducing use of force. If that’s your goal, you’ll need additional strategies:

• Clearer, more restrictive use of force policies
• Better dispatch and call diversion
• Co-responder models
• Diverting calls from a police response where feasible

For Researchers

We need to open up the “black box” of police-citizen encounters. Body-worn cameras give us an unprecedented opportunity to study what actually happens during these interactions. We should:

• Measure intermediate outcomes, not just final force statistics
• Understand when and why de-escalation works (and doesn’t work!)
• Identify which specific skills matter most
• Study the contexts where communication can prevent force

🔮 The Bottom Line

De-escalation training is working as designed: it’s teaching officers better interpersonal skills. But the path from “better communication” to “less use of force” is longer and more complicated.

This isn’t a reason to abandon de-escalation training. It’s a reason to:

1. ✅ Value it for what it accomplishes (improved officer communication)
2. ✅ Pair it with other reforms if reducing force is the goal
3. ✅ Set realistic expectations about what any single intervention can achieve
4. ✅ Keep studying what actually works

Our full manuscript “Police de-escalation training and its effects on communication: Evidence from an experimental evaluation” is forthcoming in Journal of Criminal Justice. In the meantime, you can view the preprint version on CrimRxiv.