It happens in mere seconds and in many cases can mean the difference between life or death.
Winnipeg police officers respond to hundreds of thousands of calls for service every year. In some instances, they can quickly become very serious and potentially dangerous situations.
When an officer is on one of those calls, they have seconds, not minutes, to make serious decisions, under an intense amount of stress, about how to handle the suspect or subject.
In some cases, it ultimately comes comes down to whether or not an officer not only has to pull their firearm from its holster, but to shoot.
“No one wants to,” Const. Matthew Creighton said. Creighton is one of the full time use-of-force instructors with the Winnipeg Police Service.
“No one wants that to happen. Unfortunately that’s part of our job sometimes and it’s not a want, it’s something that we have to do,” he said.
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According to police statistics, the number of incidents that actually call for an officer to use force is quite small.
In 2017, Winnipeg police responded to 225,129 calls for service. Out of those, only 866 (or 0.38 per cent) resulted in officers using some type of force.
“(Officers) are taught to evaluate based on a threat assessment. What type of weapon is it — is it a fist, an elbow, a knife a sledgehammer, a firearm — and based upon a person’s intent and the distance they are at, they have to decide what level of control is appropriate to use based on the resistance they are encountering,” Patrol Sgt. Colin Anderson said.
New recruits go through nine months of training before they become officers.
At least 19 days of that is specifically geared at proper procedures, protocols and techniques of dealing with use of force. Every two years, officers are required to re-certify their training.
“We train extensively. There’s never enough training as far as we’re concerned,” Const. Creighton said.
Every time an officer arrives at a scene, they are assessing the situation. When those situations become escalated, officers run through a threat assessment which has three components.
“Ultimately (we are) trying to use the lowest level of force necessary to achieve that level of control,” Patrol Sgt. Anderson said.
Threat Assessment
- Weapon – Does the suspect have a weapon? Is it close by? There needs to be a reasonably perceived threat
- Delivery System – This is where an officer looks at how close the suspect is to them. ‘If I don’t take action now would it prevent me from taking action later?’
- Intent – They assess the suspect’s body language and how/what they are saying to the officer. How likely is the suspect to use the weapon?
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