SPD investigates officers' de-escalation comments

Mary Bruno

Mary Bruno Jun 27, 2025

Feb 6, 2018

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                <h1>SPD investigates officers' de-escalation comments</h1>
                <h2><p>The Seattle Police Department's internal investigations unit is reviewing the remarks made by two SPD officers in a de-escalation training session. The training is designed to help officer reduce, rather than inflame tensions in the interactions with civilians. The officers' comments were captured in this New York</p></h2>
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               <p>By <a href="/author/mary-bruno-crosscut-com/">Mary Bruno</a></p> 
              <p><time datetime="2025-02-04T05:00:00-08:00">Feb 6, 2018</time></p>
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            <p>The Seattle Police Department's internal investigations unit is reviewing the remarks made by two SPD officers in a de-escalation training session. The training is designed to help officer reduce, rather than inflame tensions in the interactions with civilians. The officers' comments were captured in this <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/28/us/long-taught-to-use-force-police-warily-learn-to-de-escalate.html?ref=topics"><em>New York Times</em> video</a> and don't bode well for a kindler, gentler approach from Seattle police. One officer in the training session describes his approach to de-escalation this way: “I pulled my gun out and stuck it right in his nose and I go, ‘show me your hands now.’ He showed me his hands. I just de-escalated him from doing something.”</p><figure class="kg-card kg-embed-card"><iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/bcvideo/1.0/iframe/embed.html?videoId=100000003738518&amp;playerType=embed" title="New York Times Video - Embed Player" width="500"></iframe></figure>
          </article>

The Seattle Police Department's internal investigations unit is reviewing the remarks made by two SPD officers in a de-escalation training session. The training is designed to help officer reduce, rather than inflame tensions in the interactions with civilians. The officers' comments were captured in this New York Times video and don't bode well for a kindler, gentler approach from Seattle police. One officer in the training session describes his approach to de-escalation this way: “I pulled my gun out and stuck it right in his nose and I go, ‘show me your hands now.’ He showed me his hands. I just de-escalated him from doing something.”

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By Mary Bruno

Mary was Crosscut's Editor-in-Chief and Interim Publisher. In more than 25 years as a journalist, she has worked as a writer, editor and editorial director for a variety of print and web publications,