Every officer needs training in how to deal with emotionally disturbed people. But requiring them to recite a touchy-feely script to a crazy person who might be waving a knife at them really isn’t the way to go.
Via NY Post:
NYPD cops are about to become street shrinks, under new rules that require them to use calming phrases when they have to subdue dangerous disturbed people, The Post has learned.
The touchy-feely mandate is part of a broad series of changes to the “use of force” guidelines that Commissioner Bill Bratton announced in October — following the mistaken take-down and false arrest of tennis star James Blake and the chokehold death of Eric Garner.
“I am [name] and I’m here to help,” officers should tell an emotionally disturbed person on the street, according to the 16-page pamphlet’s directives, which go into effect Wednesday.
The cops also are told to listen closely and, “Identify what the subject wants so you can determine solutions that incorporate the concerns of the subject.”
The instructions include “Emotional labeling” — by saying to the person, “You seem [insert appropriate emotion].”
Cops told The Post the rules are absurd, as most of the disturbed people they encounter on the street won’t listen to reason. “You know what most perps say if you talk to them like that? ‘Get the f–k out of here.’ It’s laughable,” a high-ranking official said.