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SALT LAKE CITY — Newly released body camera video documents how Salt Lake City Police utilize de-escalation training to avoid the potential use of deadly force.
The video shows officers pursuing a man armed with a knife on June 7, 2016, in the area of 500 N. New Star Drive.
Salt Lake City police detective Greg Wilking said the man had previously been waving a knife in the road near North Temple and Redwood Road.
“You can understand that it’d be very concerning if you’re walking in that area and there’s a man in the middle of the road and he’s got a knife and he’s waving that around,” Wilking said. “Yeah, that’s something you call the police for — let us come and handle it.”
Wilking said the man still had the knife in hand when officers spotted him near 500 N. Redwood Road, and he refused officers’ commands to stop.
They ultimately cornered him at a fence, that is where Wilking said the video shows the de-escalation training in effect.
“We start giving him space and the officer turns, backs up, gets onto level ground,” Wilking described Thursday while watching the video. “We’re giving up space and as he’s coming toward the officer with the knife, at just about any point here, legally, an officer could use lethal force. The reason for that is because he’s advancing on officers and he’s not responding to commands and he has a deadly threat with him.”
As the man approaches an officer, the other officers are shown in the video carefully closing from behind.
The video shows an officer deploy a taser from behind, and the other officers quickly take the man into custody.
“What we’ve been teaching and what we’ve been training is that our officers can give space and by giving space that buys them time,” Wilking said. “If (the suspect) started closing that gap at full speed, there’s the potential that he could inflict serious bodily injury to the officer or potentially even kill him, but he’s giving up that ground knowing there are other officers there that have cover, have less-lethal options available and that makes a huge difference.”
Wilking said police might have handled the situation differently a decade ago, and that de-escalation training has been a focus in the Salt Lake City Police Department for the past three to four years.
The department, Wilking said, even recognizes officers with a medal when they have used their de-escalation training and skills in the line of duty to avoid the use of deadly force or to sustain human life.
37 officers have received that medal to date, Wilking said.
“We are looking at every situation and we are learning from every mistake,” Wilking said. “We always think that we can do just a little bit better, and that’s what we’re striving for is to resolve these situations peacefully. We don’t want to have a tragedy happen here. We want it to end in a positive way.”
