Richmond Police Sgt. Carrie Griffith (Photo by Jay Paul)
Richmond Police Sgt. Carrie Griffith says calming techniques — often referred to as de-escalation — are both essential and typical strategies for police officers to use as they go about their daily work.
“De-escalation is an everyday event; it’s in every call for service,” she says. “Nobody calls 911 when they’re having a good day, when they’re calm and collected.”
The department awards De-Escalation Bars annually to officers who exhibit a “high level of skill to de-escalate a situation and bring safe resolution to a situation that could have threatened public safety,” according to a press release. During an annual awards event last fall called the “Salute to Excellence,” Griffith was one of 14 Richmond Police officers who a received De-escalation Bar for her uniform.
In each instance, officers were responding to a call in which an individual was threatening self-harm. In Griffith’s case, the call involved not only danger for the individual — a young adult man — but the potential for harm to others.
Griffith, who works in the 2nd Precinct, responded with officers from her team to the 1st Precinct because their on-duty officers were handling other requests. “The 1st was tied up, and these were my officers, so I went,” she says.
When they arrived, after parking around the corner, officers found the young adult sitting outside his house, holding a gun. A large crowd of family and friends was also present.
“He was distraught, he was upset,” Griffith says. “There was a lot of yelling at this young man; it was just overwhelming.”
Griffith and two officers began to speak with the young man while other officers sought to ensure the safety of those nearby, moving them away from the man. “The reality is you have a firearm, you can do a lot of damage — to yourself, to officers, to family,” Griffith says. “Our main concern was to get him to a point where the gun wasn’t a threat to him or anyone else on scene. We were able to tell him that his family loved him, wanted him to be successful, wanted him to get help.
“You could see him slowly start to acknowledge the presence of those there to help him with his cry for help,” she adds. “He did eventually put the gun down on the ground. When we felt it was safe for us to move in, I had an officer immediately go to him while I secured the firearm, and another officer watched. Once he was in our custody, his family came up to him. He broke down and cried.
“We were able to get through to him,” she adds. “I don’t think we saved his life. He made the choice that night not to do anything to harm himself.”
The young man was placed under an Emergency Custody Order, which allows for transport to a hospital for a mental health evaluation. “I understand he willingly accepted treatment,” Griffith says. “Once he goes to the hospital, it’s out of our control.”
Police involvement was less than 10 minutes.
“It’s amazing how you lose track of time in these critical instances,” she says. “It seemed like an extremely long time. We debrief after any critical instance so we can discuss why we did what. It was only five to seven minutes long, but it felt really, really long.”
Griffith celebrated her 10th anniversary with RPD in December. She says she turned to law enforcement because she wanted to make a difference in people’s lives, as do members of her extended family in their jobs as teachers and social workers. She says RPD has been a good fit. “I am a fast-paced person; I don’t sit idle very often,” she says.
In 2019, Griffith assisted Capt. Kimberly Mooney with a training program that Mooney developed called ART: Awareness Responsive Training. The instruction is designed to help foster clear communication between law enforcement and the public as well as between police colleagues. “Capt. Mooney saw a need for the younger generation, which is so accustomed to using phones and texting,” Griffith says. “We wanted to make sure everybody we put on the street knows how to speak to people appropriately and professionally and knows how to support one another.”
An additional component of the training includes de-escalation techniques and instruction about mental health.
“We want to calm the scene, make sure we’re speaking with the victim, witnesses, so we can get the information we need to assist them in their need and the reason for the call for service, and to make sure everybody is safe,” Griffith says.
Every sworn Richmond Police officer receives this training, Griffith says, as well as Crisis Intervention Training, a weeklong course in which officers are taught different communication skills to use in a crisis. Refresher instruction comes in the twice-annual Use of Force training, in which officers are taught how to manage situations without force. De-escalation is part of that, too, Griffith says.
“De-escalation is something as police we inherently do,” she explains. “I knew I was written up [for this situation]. I think everybody in the department should be commended for it. It’s not like we’re hugging babies and playing baseball every day. That young man was close to my son’s age. As a mom, it’s a hard thing to watch. But you have to push ‘Mom’ out, and you’re just a sergeant. As a mother, I hope I don’t ever have to go through that.”
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