Author(s):
Clemens Lorei, Kristina Balaneskovic, Kerstin Kocab & Hermann Groß

Institution:
Hessische Hochschule für öffentliches Management und Sicherheit

Title:
De-escalation as a topic in the education and training of the German police.

Abstract:
De-escalation is a police maxim that corresponds to citizen-oriented police work in a constitutional state. De-escalation skills are required both as a measure against police violence and to prevent violence against police officers. The call for (more) de-escalation is always heard when related incidents occur. With the present study, at the beginning of the year 2022, police training institutions and universities of applied sciences or police academies of all 16 federal states in Germany were contacted and asked to complete a questionnaire regar­ding courses on the topic of de-escalation. With a response rate of about 80%, it can be stated that de-escalation is dealt with in training or education but appears to be disadvantaged compared to measures of direct coercion. The courses take the main target groups of de-escalation into account and cover the basic competency goals and de-escalation strategies, albeit with varying degrees of intensity. Overall, it is questionable whether the courses‘ intensity on de-escalation is sufficient for learning and automating de-escalation in an action-oriented and adaptable way. Thus, a transfer into the operational prac­tice does not seem to be ensured. Evaluations are carried out according to the practices in training and education.

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