- Collect Information - Perception check, descriptive versus evaluative, artifacts, space and territory
- Assess threats and risks - Check the zones, safety first
- Consider powers and policy - the purpose of the call
- Identify options, best choices - Immediacy, proportionality, tonality
- Act and close the loop - engage the subject, enforce the law
Collect Information
I call this sweep: what’s in your vicinity that lends meaning to your situation? Sound familiar? You're already doing this through the perceptual process in the sensation and organization stage. Locate in these areas:- Artifacts - what’s lying around, shows the most recent use?
- Space - how is it occupied by the subjects? Proximity, encroaching, invading, screening.
- Territory - how is it guarded?
Assess Threat
I call this locate: scan the subjects checking the seven zones (oculesics, kinesics, proxemics, paralinguistics, physical indicators, psychological manifestations, affect displays) and locate the nonverbal tells that can help you rate the situation. Locate your egress, clear vulnerable areas.Consider Powers and Policy
I call this identify: Identify what's within your stewardship as a law enforcement officer. Identify what duty you're sworn to, what your responsibility is for your jurisdiction, your city, county and state and how your department has created policy that applies to your situation.Identify Options
I call this discern: Going for the best choices, the best practices. Three considerations are made at this level; the immediacy of the situation, your proportional response, and your tonality in how you're enacting your duty.
Immediacy accelerates with escalation. It's inherent for one to put out the fire as soon as possible. But in discerning the call, consider that temporal context; how can time be used to best de-escalate the situation. Outside of an immediate threat to the safety of all involved, slowing down the pace of the de-escalation works to your favor.
Proportionality is the ability to rise to the communication needs of the situation without exceeding them. If we're responding as a ten to a two situation, we've lost credibility because it looks like we've lost control. No more poignant evidence exists than that of the OISs asa of late.
Tonality is part of the proportional response, but it means more than how we're sounding - it's the whole nonverbal package as well. There needs to be agreement between what we're saying, how we're speaking it and how we're showing it. This tonal agreement clarifies our meaning making us easier to understand. A calm voice countered by a defensive posture gets cancelled out.
Act and close the Loop
I call this engage: De-escalate, enforce the law, preserve safety, make the arrest, disperse the trouble and close the loop back to locate.
Sweep, locate, identify, discern, engage. Oh, look, I've made a little acronym.
S.L.I.D.E. - the Critical Decision-Making Model.
Measure each level of SLIDE to this critical criteria: ethics, values, contextual perception, proportionality of response and respect.
Ethics - As information is being gathered in the sweep phase, compare the process to the ethical and Constitutional standards.
Values - Your department has defined these as the creed of your policing, critical to your identification to your call and to the people.
Context - Remember, this is where you're finding meaning. Preserve the contexts for what they are versus what you may perceive them to be. This is especially important in the discern stage of the CDM.
Proportionality - That ten-response-to-a-two-situation thing, but is also means a meting out of duty equally.
Respect - This means the sanctity of life. Imperative to consider in the identify, discern and engage stages where the use of force has become a consideration.
