
Wayne State's national de-escalation program aims to prevent excessive use of force
At Wayne State University, on-campus police have recently launched a National De-escalation Training Center. Here, the finest from various jurisdictions are trained in how to take down situations without the use of excessive force, something Officer Andrew Sheppard says should never be an option. "Instead of getting into a fight with you, I rather say, 'Hey man, let's talk this out. Whatever you did is not that bad,'" Sheppard said. Sheppard believes that when police use excessive force during confrontations, officers are "letting personal issues get above the job." According to data collected by the Washington Post, last year, at least 1,055 people were shot and killed by police nationwide. That’s more than the 1,021 shootings in 2020 and the 999 in 2019. "We as officers go through a divorce, we also go through ... PTSD. Again, we are human. We don’t know what's in the background of some of these police officers. We don’t know what's in the background in some of these citizens," Sheppard said.