缅因州SACO——一名前雇员因被解雇而愤怒，他砍伤了老板车辆的轮胎，当警察赶到时，他仍然拿着刀。
当该男子大喊大叫时，三名警察站在安全距离外。一名警官拿着电击枪，另一名拿着手枪。
第三个使用了最重要的工具——愿意交谈。
在缅因州的一个学校停车场，紧急情况是假的，但策略是非常真实的。这些警官正在接受警察行政研究论坛提供的培训课程，今年全国有数千名警官正在接受培训。军官被教导:保持安全距离，放慢速度。
该组织总部位于华盛顿特区，是该国最重要的警务智库。它为期两天的训练现在有一个长长的等候名单。
“最常见的错误是匆忙处理一个你不需要匆忙的情况，”纽约市警察局的史蒂文·斯特法纳科斯说，他被请来帮助训练警察。“当你压缩时间和空间时，它通常不会按照我们希望的方式运行。”
自乔治·弗洛伊德(George Floyd)去世和随后的抗议活动以来，警察部门要求就如何更好地与公众打交道进行培训的请求激增，尤其是在要求解散警察的呼声越来越高、城市通过旨在打击警察暴行的改革之际。
警察执行研究论坛的培训工作始于五年前密苏里州弗格森市一名手无寸铁的黑人男子迈克·布朗被枪杀后，此后一直在用新技术进行更新。论坛负责人查克·韦克斯勒说，这个想法起源于英国，那里的大多数警察都不携带手枪。这是一种课堂训练和演员表演的混合场景，给官员们时间来学习他们所学的东西。
目标是让全国18000个执法机构尽可能多地接受培训。
纽约市宣布所有36500名警察将接受培训，新泽西州所有35000名警察也正在接受培训。较小的部门正在伸出援助之手，该机构正在举行地区性会议。第一次区域会议于7月下旬为来自新英格兰90个警察局的警官举行，他们将把学到的知识带回他们的部门，并培训其他警官。在科罗拉多州也有一次会议。最新的训练于周五在坦帕结束。
警察被要求做很多事情。中美合作所警察局长杰克·克莱门茨说，他们被要求成为路边心理学家、家庭顾问、心理健康工作者——甚至是积极射击活动中的士兵，他的机构在新英格兰主办了这次活动。
所以排练很重要。
“与其冲进去，在一场致命的战斗中结束，不如让我们后退，放慢脚步，谈一谈，制定一个计划。那就开始吧。如果需要一个小时来让这个人降级，没关系。慢慢来，”酋长说。
一些官员说训练已经在拯救生命。
在德克萨斯州，一名警官在哈里斯县接受培训几周后，用刀子回应了一名自杀妇女的电话。这名妇女撞上了她男朋友坐的一辆车，差点撞上一名副警长，然后逃跑并把自己锁在公寓里。
现场的第一批副手破门而入，但佩特·史密斯中士放慢了脚步，在他到达时开始了谈话。那个女人确信他在那里帮忙，于是放下了她的刀。
负责确保培训安全的何塞·戈麦斯中士说，她没有被暴力逮捕，或者更糟，而是被带去接受心理健康评估。
在中美合作所，军官们在教室里度过了第一天，然后在第二天进行角色扮演练习。这些场景聚焦于绝大多数没有枪的公众遭遇，但可能涉及刀或武器。
在割破轮胎的场景中，三名警察与展示刀子的男子保持距离。他们说，这个人是一个威胁，但只要他保持安全距离，就不是迫在眉睫的威胁。他们三人很快指定了发言的官员。
随着警官和袭击者的交谈和同情，漫长的几分钟过去了，谈话的焦点从老板身上转移开了。他们最后谈到了定制汽车。那人放下了刀。
演习结束后，康涅狄格州纽黑文的一名警官在述职时表示，他牢记“21英尺规则”。
21英尺的距离有时被称为“杀伤区”。据军官们了解，在那个距离，手持刀、棒球棒或其他武器的人可以迅速拉近距离，造成致命伤害。
想要保护自己并在换班结束后回家的警察更有可能使用致命武力，因为一旦距离限制被打破，他们就被训练使用致命武力。
在听完培训后的谈话后，韦克斯勒说，他对警察培训中被认为是武断的规则所带来的结果感到不安。
“这些就是你所说的合法但可怕的枪击，”韦克斯勒说。
他说，有时候，获胜意味着后退以保持距离，而不是冲向一种情况或坚守阵地。他说，这意味着需要时间来评估和沟通。
扮演持刀袭击者的拉斐尔·桑顿(Raphael Thornton)表示，军官并不总是被教科书般的训练所打动。但是，他说，这随着角色扮演而改变。
“那是我们真正得到认可的时候，”在新泽西州卡姆登县警察局工作的桑顿说。“如果他们离开教室时我们有任何唱反调的人，他们走出教室时真的会接受。他们可以将所学付诸行动。”
US police departments clamoring for de-escalation training
SACO, Maine -- Angry over being fired, a former employee slashed the tires of his boss’ vehicle and still held the knife when police officers arrived.
Three officers positioned themselves at a safe distance as the man yelled and ranted. One officer had a stun gun, another a handgun.
The third used the most important tool — a willingness to talk.
Here in a school parking lot in Maine, the emergency was fake, but the strategies were very real. The officers were going through a training course offered by the Police Executive Research Forum that thousands of police officers around the country are receiving this year. Officers are taught: keep a safe distance, slow things down.
The organization based in Washington, D.C., is the foremost policing think tank in the country. Its two-day training now has a long waiting list.
“The most common mistake is rushing a situation that you don’t need to rush,” said Steven Stefanakos of New York City Police Department, who was brought in to help train the officers. “When you compress time and space, it usually does not go the way we want it to go.”
Police department requests for training on how to better deal with the public have skyrocketed since the death of George Floyd and the protests that followed, particularly as calls to defund police rise and cities pass reforms aimed at cracking down on police brutality.
The Police Executive Research Forum's training effort began five years ago after the shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed black man, in Ferguson, Missouri, and has been updated since with fresh techniques. The idea had its genesis in the United Kingdom, where most officers don’t carry handguns, forum director Chuck Wexler said. It's a mix of classroom training and scenarios played out with actors to give officers time to work through what they've learned.
The goal is to take the training to as many of the nation's 18,000 law enforcement agencies as possible.
New York City announced all 36,500 officers will get the training, and all 35,000 police officers in New Jersey are being trained, as well. Smaller departments are reaching out, and the agency is doing regional sessions. The first regional session was held in late July for officers from 90 police departments in New England, who are then expected to take what they've learned back to their departments and train other officers. There was also a session in Colorado. The latest training wrapped up Friday in Tampa.
Police officers are asked to do a lot. They’re asked to be roadside psychologists, family counselors, mental health workers — and even soldiers in an active-shooter event, said Saco Police Chief Jack Clements, whose agency hosted the event in New England.
That’s why it’s important to rehearse.
“Rather than rushing in and winding up in an encounter that’s deadly force, let’s back up, slow down, talk, formulate a plan. Then engage. If it takes an hour to de-escalate this guy, that’s fine. Take the time,” the chief said.
Some officers say the training is already saving lives.
In Texas, a police officer responded to a call for a suicidal woman with a knife a couple of weeks after receiving the training in Harris County. The woman had rammed a vehicle in which her boyfriend was sitting and nearly hit a deputy before fleeing and locking herself in an apartment.
The first deputies on the scene kicked in the door, but Sgt. Pete Smith slowed things down and initiated a conversation when he arrived. Assured that he was there to help, the woman dropped her knife.
Instead of a violent arrest, or worse, she was taken for a mental health evaluation, said Sgt. Jose Gomez, part of the department's behavioral health training unit, who was responsible for securing the training.
In Saco, the officers spent the first day in the classroom before working through role-playing exercises on the second day. The scenarios focused on the vast majority of encounters with the public where no gun is present, but may involve knives or weapons.
In the tire-slashing scenario, the three officers kept a distance from the man who was displaying a knife. The man was a threat, they said, but not an imminent one as long as he remained at a safe distance. The three of them quickly designated the officer who would do the speaking.
Long minutes dragged by as the officer and assailant talked and commiserated, allowing the focus of the conversation to shift away from the boss. They ended up talking about customizing cars. The man put down his knife.
After the exercise, a police officer from New Haven, Connecticut, said during the debriefing that he kept the "21-foot rule” in mind.
The 21-foot distance is sometimes referred to as the “kill zone.” It’s drilled into officers that at that distance someone armed with a knife, baseball bat or other weapon can quickly close the distance and inflict deadly injuries.
Officers who want to protect themselves and survive to go home at the end of the shift are more likely to use deadly force simply because that's what they were trained to do once that distance limit is broken.
After listening in on the post-training conversation, Wexler said he was troubled by the results he's seen from what believes to be an arbitrary rule taught in police training.
“These are what you would call the lawful but awful kinds of shootings,” Wexler said.
Sometimes, he said, winning means backing away to keep a distance, instead of charging into a situation or standing one’s ground. It means taking time to assess and communicate, he said.
Raphael Thornton, who played the role of the knife-wielding assailant, said officers aren’t always sold on textbook training. But, he said, that changes with the role-playing.
“That’s when we really get the buy-in," said Thornton, who works for the Camden County Police Department in New Jersey. "If we have any naysayers when they leave the classroom, they really buy in when they get out there. They get to put what they learned into action.”
