As Mother Teresa once said, 'Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless'.
Often, the first person someone in crisis speaks to during a critical incident is a police officer, and that's where our Regional Crisis Negotiation Unit (RCNU) comes in.
Whether it's an armed and barricade, hostage or mental health crisis, the team is called upon to de-escalate the situation using the power of words.
"As police, we train our officers - we used to call it Verbal Judo - but basically, if we can get somebody to comply with what we want them to do without having to use force, that's always the first option. That might not work, but we have to try," explained team leader, Jason Penner. "There's a number of techniques and things that we use and teach and do in our day-to-day jobs, just as general patrol officers, that can help. What our unit does is more specialized, more trained. It goes more in-depth."
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The first step, explained Penner, is to build rapport and empathy with the person involved, working together to solve the situation.
"I couldn't be more proud of the job that these people do."
This reporter met up with the Unit during one of its regular sessions in Altona last week where members spent the day running through different scenarios, keeping their skills sharp for when they are called upon to de-escalate a critical incident in our community. Penner admitted, these kinds of calls don't happen a lot but noted, the team has to be ready for when they do.
At minimum, Penner says they do between 40 and 50 hours of training a year.
"It's like doing reps. Whether you're working out, swinging a golf club, it's just to get comfortable and familiar with different scenarios," he explained. "We try and change it up. We try and throw curve balls at our people just so they get experience dealing with these types of calls."
"The men and women that comprise our unit work hard at developing their skill set to be able to deal with a person in crisis in a very stressful situation," added Penner. "I couldn't be more proud of the job that these people do."
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Not only this, but Penner says the members of the unit care.
"They care to help those people. They care to help educate our officers. They care to help educate the public. They really buy in to our unit and our unit goals. I am in awe of it every day and it's a pleasure to be a part of that."
The work doesn't end when the call does
With numerous mental health and social safety nets available in the Pembina Valley, Penner says members also steer the person involved towards those resources.
"Our goal isn't to solve the problem, necessarily, but to come up with a plan with them," he explained, adding they will often do a follow up as well. "It doesn't always work that way, and there's a fine line between getting into social work and being a police officer, however, it is part of our job to, at least, attempt some of that. At the end of the day, we're responsible to our communities to help people and that's what we're trying to do, however that is."
A valuable resource in itself
Since becoming operational in 2018, Penner says the RCNU has become a valuable resource for the Altona, Morden and Winkler police services.
Should an incident unfold that requires the RCNU, Regional Support Tactical Team (RSTT) and Incident Command, he says local law enforcement is able handle it for a significant period of time before calling in outside resources to help.
"Society isn't changing for the better, in my opinion, and we are called to deal with all kinds of different calls that are serious in nature. For all of these communities to have these resources available to them is, I think, a comforting thing."