OROVILLE – Business owners, community volunteers, municipal law enforcement officers as well as police officers gathered in the conference room of the Oroville Police Department on Monday for a Community De-escalation Training.
The training was the first four-hour session of a four-part series focusing on how to ease difficult situations when dealing with people who are, for whatever reason, agitated or problematic.
“De-escalation is extremely important when dealing with some members of society. The training is educate people on how to deal with people who are elevated,” said Police Chief Bill LaGrone. “It’s to teach people how to talk their way through difficult situations, to talk people down, how to react, how not to react, things they should and shouldn’t do. Essentially, it’s about how to defuse or escape the situation.”
The workshop series was designed by staff from Butte College’s The Training Place. The first class was co-hosted by Emiliano Jimenez, a trainer from The Training Place and Reidun Waddell, program manager from Butte County Behavioral Health.
The de-escalation course was specifically designed to assist those, like the MLE officers, business owners and employees who deal with the public on a daily basis as well as those who volunteer serving challenged populations in effectively managing interactions through a variety communication techniques and avoiding violent altercations.
“The last thing anyone wants is a physical confrontation while waiting for police officers to arrive,” said LaGrone. “Our goal is to provide people the communication tools necessary to keep things from escalating.”
Attendee Lynann Pilley, who works at the Oroville Rescue Mission, often in the resource center or emergency shelter and has to deal with walk-in clients who may be in varying levels of mental distress or crisis and “struggling,” said she found the first class helpful.
“There are a lot of different techniques they are giving us to help combat the situations we sometimes have to deal with,” said Pilley. “I think it’s very good.”
MLE officer Payton Meyers said he found the training “enlightening.”
“We have to deal with situations like these every day ,” said Meyers. “It’s good to learn new skills and techniques to help us do our jobs even better.”
LaGrone described this series of de-escalation trainings as a “pilot program.” Once complete, LaGrone said he and staff from The Training Place will sit down together and, using feedback from participants, look at what worked in the training and what could be improved upon. The plan, he said, is to offer the series once a quarter.
While space is limited, the training is open and free to the public and “anyone is welcome,” said LaGrone.
To register for notification of future Community De-escalation Training classes contact Keliecia Riley, OPD public information officer and administrative assistant at 530-538-2481.
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