Photo by Erin Nelson.
Hoover Police Department Sgt. Reggie Parker, the new mental health coordinator for the city of Hoover, speaks about the importance of active listening when law enforcement officers are working cases during the de-escalation training portion of the 2021 Arello Regulatory Investigations seminar Oct. 7 at Hyatt Regency Birmingham – The Wynfrey Hotel.
Training for police officers in 2022 is about much more than just how to investigate a crime, make an arrest or shoot a gun.
The Hoover Police Department recently has taken on a wider array of training that includes how to be understanding of different cultures, how to help veterans who may be dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder and how to help people with sensory overload or mental health issues.
For the past several years, the department has provided officers with special training on how to de-escalate crisis situations and work with those who have mental health problems, but training efforts have been expanded this year even further, Capt. Keith Czeskleba said.
“We’re trying to take a smarter and educated approach to these things,” Czeskleba said. “Police officers are not mental health counselors. We’re not doctors. We’re not medical professionals. However, when someone calls 911 about someone who’s experiencing some type of mental health episode, the police are who is going to come first.
“We’re going to equip our people with the best training and equipment necessary to make that interaction safe for everyone that’s involved with it,” whether that be the person in crisis, the person calling for help, officers responding to the call or bystanders, Czeskleba said.
Reggie Parker, who has served as a Hoover police officer the past 27 years, went back to school to become a licensed professional counselor and has led the mental health crisis intervention and de-escalation training for Hoover police in recent years. In October, Parker shifted into a newly created job of mental health coordinator for all city employees. He’ll continue training Hoover police but now will expand his efforts across all city departments.
Parker said in his past training with Hoover police, he has focused on helping officers develop active listening skills to help de-escalate tense situations.
“A lot of times, people, when they’re listening to an individual, they listen to respond instead of listening to understand,” Parker said. “We have to be able to listen well. … When people feel like they’re listened to, it helps them in resolving the situation themselves.”
He teaches officers how to have an effective pause in the conversation, how to repeat information back to make sure they understand what the other person is saying and the importance of maintaining a calm voice, he said.
He looks forward to working with the fire department, telecommunicators and other city departments, he said.
Racial Intelligence Training
In April and September of this 2021, Czeskleba led two groups of officers through a Racial Intelligence Training and Engagement course.
One part of the training taught officers how to work with people who are different from them, whether from a different race, sex, religion or background, Czeskleba said.
But the training was about much more than race, he said. A large part of it dealt with emotional intelligence, self-awareness and social intelligence. It’s designed to teach officers how to recognize their mental state before they come to work and how not to let their personal beliefs and circumstances impact the way they approach their job.
That could mean recognizing any potential implicit biases they have, not letting personal problems affect their interactions as police officers and not letting a difficult call impact how they react to someone else on the next call, Czeskleba said.
