Law enforcement officials and future officers got a hands-on learning experience about crisis management.
LACKAWANNA COUNTY, Pa. — With the world constantly changing, policing is too.
That’s why police academy students at Lackawanna College and members of law enforcement from across the area played out real-life scenarios inside Angel’s Hall in Scranton.
An education on how to deal with crisis management while on the job.
“Police training has evolved over the past several decades, but I think the most important thing is the overall increase we’ve seen that law enforcement is being tasked with, with almost always the first responders on these kinds of scenes with someone in a mental crisis or someone wanting to harm themselves. I think it’s very important that they have this background and training to how to deal with these situations effectively and professionally,” said Kevin Mahoney, Lackawanna College Police Academy Director.
The free lesson comes as a partnership between the Pennsylvania State Police and educators with Penn State Health out of Hershey.
The focus is teaching cadets and re-educating officers on critical incident awareness, effective response, mental health recognition, de-escalation, and intervention tactics, and much more.
“We actually actively collaborate with the academy instructors, the Pennsylvania State Police Academy instructors in the development of this simulation to align with what they are encountering in the community. We bring in standardized patients, also known as actors, to relive these, create these realistic experiences so the cadets can actively experiment,” said Theresa Brosche, Penn State Health.
Through reenactments and going over case law regarding the use of force, the eight-hour training combines the work of experienced law enforcement trainers and mental health professionals.
“The excitement for me comes after this, taking the confidence and the compassion that they learned in this scenario and applying it to law enforcement interactions in the public, and how that can greatly influence the interactions that they have in the public and those individuals’ lives that they interact with,” said Stephanie Harvison, PSU Licensed Professional Counselor.
Trainers say laying the groundwork now will give the cadets a foundation before starting their careers and help reinforce practices for active law enforcement, whose next call could be for a mental health crisis.