By Sergeant Christopher Bax
The vast majority of interactions with a person in crisis are low-risk situations that can be handled with good communication skills. Occasionally, officers are called to handle high-risk situations where the person in crisis poses a serious threat of harm to themselves or others, including first responders. When handling a high- risk crisis call, officers might find the acronym ICE-T helpful:
- Isolation
- Containment
- Evacuation
- Talk
This concept was published by the Force Science Institute in its course “Realistic De-escalation” as ICEN, with the N standing for Negotiate. Although trained negotiators are valuable, they are not always readily available, making the first responding officers the initial point of contact. Officers can utilize the acronym ICE-T when faced with high-risk crisis situations.
1. Isolation
The first consideration should be determining if the subject is isolated. When a person in crisis escalates to high risk, such as being armed or believed to be armed, and poses a serious risk of harm to themselves or others, any other people near the subject should be immediately directed away from the threat.
Occasionally, family members or friends will attempt to “shield” the subject from officers. Although their intent is to keep the subject safe from the perceived threat, their actions put themselves at risk. Orders should be directed to the person intervening to move away from the subject. By isolating the subject, the potential risk of injury is limited to self-injury and/or attempts to harm officers.
2. Containment
Once the subject is isolated, efforts should be made to keep them contained. The ability to establish a perimeter around the residence, vehicle, or geographical area of the subject if they are on foot will depend on the resources available. Communication with dispatch and other responding officers will be key in establishing the initial perimeter and requesting additional resources to strengthen it. Efforts should focus on maintaining containment to protect the public from the subject.
3. Evacuation
If the subject is isolated and contained, the need for evacuation should be considered. If a subject is in their residence, evacuating family members will reduce the danger to others, limiting it to only the subject if, for example, they are armed with an edged weapon. If the subject is armed or believed to be armed with a firearm, further evacuation of nearby residences and/or public areas might be necessary. People are not always willing to evacuate, especially family members. If conditions allow, officers should take the time to explain to family members that by stepping back from the high-risk situation and utilizing time, distance, cover, and concealment, the outcome is more likely to be safer for everyone involved, including the person in crisis. Evacuating people away from the high-risk individual buys time and provides the ability to establish meaningful communication — to talk.
4. Talk
With ICE established, officers can focus on talking with the high-risk person in crisis. Nothing in this article is meant to put an officer at unnecessary risk in order to talk with the subject. On the contrary, officer safety should be prioritized, as only when officers are in a position of relative safety can they move beyond giving orders and toward crisis intervention. The key component of crisis intervention is slowing things down. Often, a person in a high-risk crisis acts on emotions rather than reasoned thought processes. When officers can slow things down, they can begin to move a person from crisis to compliance. For more information on communication skills, officers can refer to my previously published article, “How officers can move people from crisis to compliance.”
High-risk crisis calls are often dynamic and stressful for responding officers. Without proper preparation, these situations have the potential to spiral out of control. By using the acronym ICE-T as a guide, first responding officers can increase the likelihood of gaining voluntary compliance while mitigating the risk of injury to the person in crisis, family members, others nearby, and the responding officers themselves.
About the author
Christopher Bax is a sergeant with the Clarkstown Police Department in Rockland County, New York, a consultant for the NYS Office of Mental Health, and a NYS DCJS Master Instructor. He started his career with the NYPD in 2005, becoming a third-generation police officer. He worked for the Westchester County Police Department for two years before joining his hometown department in Clarkstown in 2008, where he was promoted in 2019. Special thanks to Chief Jeff Wanamaker and all members of the Clarkstown Police Department, mental health professionals Dr. Don Kamin, Carrie Wong and Mark Giuliano for their guidance, and his family for their support.
