Columbus police host training on how to foster dialogue during protests
This week Columbus police (CPD) hosted a training about its new and improved strategies to respond to protests, developed through the division's dialogue team. Police say there were officers from 15 departments nationwide and even some from Canada.
Columbus residents may have seen CPD officers at a protest or community event wearing a light blue vest, which designates them as dialogue officers. Columbus Police Sgt. Kolin Straub said he is excited to hear officers' positive feedback from the training and eager to see how they implement the knowledge in their city.
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'We're humbled that people want to come to Columbus, Ohio, and learn what we've been doing,' Straub said.
Straub said the division formed the state's first dialogue team in response to protests in the summer of 2020 centering around police brutality and reform.
'Dialogue has been our city's 'how we have moved forward from 2020, how we're trying to move forward from 2020.' We looked critically at what we did. We got a lot of feedback about what we did,' Straub said.
Straub said the team is not doing enforcement action. Instead, these officers are having genuine conversations with people at these protests.
'We hope that these officers that are working with different crowds, different protests, we stress honest dialogue requires honest intent. And they need to come into those conversations with protesters genuinely trying to facilitate their First Amendment Rights,' Straub said.
CPD said officers started by teaching the science behind why genuine communication is important, then moved to scenario-based training.
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'We just built out this program and it's done very well in the sciences, and guided us very well. And we're happy to share that knowledge,' Straub said.
Commander Lawrence Davis oversees community engagement and homeless operations for the Austin Police Department in Texas. He said he was impressed by the training.
'I think that the Columbus Division of Police has been so bold, so daring to say that not only are we going to find value in the voices of all of our community members, we're going to take it a step further,' Davis said. 'We're going to go out there, find them great and small, and we're going to give them a voice, a seat at the table. In fact, we're going to find them where they are and meet them at their level. So, that was kind of impressive to me.'
Davis said he can think of many situations in his career where this training could have bettered the situation. He said he is looking forward to exploring what he has learned and bringing this back to his department.
'I just think that having the courage to touch this thing gives us access to the very thing that communities across the country have already been asking for. And it gives the police departments a pathway to three things: public trust, public confidence and police legitimacy,' Davis said.
Straub said this team has given the division a better picture of what is actually happening during a protest. He said they better understand the dynamics and are building relationships with the crowd rather than just sitting back and watching.
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