Program Profile: Integrating Communications, Assessment, and Tactics (ICAT) De-Escalation Training (Louisville, Kentucky)

This training teaches police officers skills and tactics to minimize the frequency and severity of their use of force in encounters with citizens. The program is rated Effective. There were statistically significant reductions in officer use of force against individuals and in officer and citizen injuries from the preintervention to postintervention periods for officers in the divisions that received the training, compared with officers in divisions that had not yet received the training. 

An Effective rating implies that implementing the program is likely to result in the intended outcome(s).

This program's rating is based on evidence that includes at least one high-quality randomized controlled trial.

Program Goals

Highly publicized police use-of-force incidents with citizens have led to calls for police reform, particularly officer training to reduce the frequency and severity of use of force (Engel et al. 2022a). In response, police agencies across the country have implemented training on de-escalation, which can be defined as “bringing a situation or citizen in crisis back to a calm state, using the least amount of force possible” (Todak and White 2019, 842). The Integrating Communications, Assessment, and Tactics (ICAT) training was developed to instruct officers in de-escalation tactics and critical thinking skills that will help them better manage potentially volatile encounters with citizens. The goal is to enhance both officer and citizen safety during encounters.

Program Components/Key Personnel 

The ICAT training integrates critical thinking, crisis recognition and intervention, communication skills, and operational tactics, and is designed for officers responding to circumstances in which a person is behaving erratically (because of mental health disorders, substance use, situational stress, and/or developmental disabilities) and is either unarmed or armed with anything less than a firearm (Police Executive Research Forum 2016).The ICAT training includes lecture- and discussion-based learning, video case studies, and scenario-based exercises (Police Executive Research Forum 2023).

The training consists of seven modules. Module 1: Introduction provides an overview of ICAT, including how it was developed, what the training does (provides officers with more options in use-of-force situations), and what the training does not do (for example, the training does not instruct officers not to use force when appropriate). Module 2: Critical Decision Making Model explains the basics of the five-step critical decision making model process that helps officers structure and guide their decision making in response to any type of incident. Module 3: Crises Recognition uses both research and case studies to provide information about recognizing people in crisis and practical tips on how to approach them and defuse potentially volatile situations. Module 4: Tactical Communications covers the theory and practice of effective communication in tense, dynamic situations and operationalizes concepts such as active listening (listening to understand and not just respond) and non-verbal communication. Module 5: Suicide by Cop was added to the original ICAT curriculum in response to the frequency of situations in which someone who is suicidal tries to get a police officer to take their life. This module provides practical steps that officers can take to try to safely defuse these encounters without having to resort to deadly force. Module 6: Operational Tactics focuses on three phases of a police call: 1) pre-response planning, 2) the actual response, and 3) post-response reviews. This module covers tactics such as taking a “tactical pause” (if safe and appropriate) to develop or refine a response strategy, using time and repositioning to establish and maintain a “reactionary gap,” operating as a team when several officers are on the scene, and managing oneself throughout the encounter. Finally, Module 7: Step Up and Step In is another addition to the original curriculum that focuses on preventing problems in potential use-of-force situations before they occur (Police Executive Research Forum 2023).

From February to November 2019, the Louisville, Kentucky Metro Police Department delivered the ICAT training to 1,049 sworn officers, including all officers assigned to the patrol division. The training was conducted by five trainers within the Louisville Metro Police Department training division who had attended a train-the-trainer course provided by Police Executive Research Forum staff, the developers of the training. Louisville Metro Police Department instructors made a few minor adaptations to the ICAT curriculum to tailor it to the local context. The training program was delivered during two consecutive 8-hour training days (Wednesday and Thursday) within a 40-hour, week-long in-service training block that was required for all sworn officers. In each training session, 40–50 officers were present. They had assigned seating at group tables with their respective division officers and often with a division supervisor. These seating arrangements were specifically designed to reinforce collaboration among officers who often work in the field with one another (Engel et al., 2022a).

Study

Engel and colleagues (2022a) used a stepped-wedge cluster randomized controlled trial to examine the effect of the Integrating Communications, Assessment, and Tactics (ICAT) De-Escalation Training on officer behavior (specifically, use of force) and officer and citizen injuries in Louisville, Kentucky, during January 1, 2018, to April 30, 2020.

The nine Louisville Metro Police Department patrol divisions, including eight geography-based divisions and one mobile unit operating across the city of Louisville, were grouped into three strata while ensuring equivalency of patrol officer counts and comparable preintervention crime and arrest rates. Then, each stratum was randomly selected for the discrete time points to receive the ICAT training. Officers in stratum 1 (Divisions 1, 6, and 8) were randomly selected to attend training from February 11 to May 17, 2019. Officers from stratum 2 (Divisions 4, 5, and 7) were trained from May 20 to August 23, 2019, and officers from stratum 3 (Divisions 2, 3, and 9) were trained from September 9 to November 21, 2019. The design allowed for a comparison between officers in the clusters receiving the intervention, and officers in the clusters experiencing “conditions as usual” who were waiting to cross over to the intervention group and receive the training. By the end of the study period, all clusters moved to the intervention group and received the ICAT training.  

Use-of-force data were provided by the Louisville Metro Police Department. The department’s Standard Operating Procedure use-of-force policy delineated when and how force can be used by officers. According to the policy, commanding officers were required to complete an Administrative Incident Report for all reportable use-of-force incidents, which included all use-of-force incidents resulting in any injury, or the complaint of any injury, to either the officer or subject; or involving the use of physical force other than a control hold (a technique with a low probability of injury to the officer or subject that is employed to maintain physical control of a subject). The use-of-force outcome was measured as the number of individuals who had force used against them during a single encounter. This single encounter could include multiple police actions, given the escalating nature of force (i.e., an officer may initiate with a low level of force and increase) and the fact that multiple officers could use force against a single individual. The frequency of officer and citizen injuries reported as a result of use-of-force incidents was also examined. The Louisville Metro Police Department collected injury information for every individual and police officer involved in a use-of-force encounter regardless of the need for medical attention. The data provided did not include specific information regarding the type or severity of these injuries, only whether an injury was reported by the officer or citizen, and if it required medical attention. Counts of injuries included those reported by individuals or officers, regardless of whether medical attention was received. 

The timeframe of January 1, 2018, to April 30, 2020, was used to examine changes in officer use of force and officer and citizen injuries as a result of the training. This period equated to between 14 and 20 months of observational data prior to the onset of training, and 8 to 12 months in the posttraining period for each division, depending on the timing of the training program for each division. During the baseline year (2018), force was used by 1,007 officers against 458 individuals, 80 officer injuries were reported, and 124 citizen injuries were reported.

Poisson regression with maximum likelihood estimation was used to examine the change in each outcome (counts of use of force, citizen injury, and officer injury) from the pretraining period to the post-training period for officers in divisions that received the training compared with officers in divisions that had not yet received the training. The model included individual and time-period (i.e., monthly and annual) fixed effects to account for time- and individual-invariant unobserved heterogeneity. No subgroup analysis was conducted.  

These sources were used in the development of the program profile:

These sources were used in the development of the program profile: