All Arlington police officers have been trained over the past four months in a program aimed at sharpening decision-making, crisis response, tactical communications and operational safety.

Acting Chief Julie Flaherty reports that police trained in a program called Integrating Communications, Assessment and Tactics (ICAT). 

ICAT is a new training guide, developed in conjunction with the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF), to complete training which focuses on providing police officers with the tools needed to respond to a number of critical situations.

"The ICAT training is particularly valuable to the Arlington Police Department because every member is now better equipped to effectively respond to erratic and volatile situations," Flaherty said in an April 5 news release. "We welcome any opportunity where we can improve our skills to keep officers and our community safe at all times."

Some of the core areas of the training included:

• Patrol officer response: ICAT provides first-responding officers with the skills and options needed to safely and effectively manage encounters with people who are acting erratically, often because of mental illness or a behavioral crisis.
• Nonfirearms incidents: ICAT focuses on critical incidents where the subject is unarmed or armed with a weapon other than a firearm. These non-firearms incidents often present officers with time and opportunity to consider a range of responses.
• Integration of crisis recognition/intervention, communications, and tactics: ICAT integrates communications and tactical skills with crisis intervention approaches. This approach is presented in the context of a critical decision-making model that helps patrol officers develop and think through their options in these challenging nonfirearm-related incidents.
• Officer safety and wellness: The training guide focuses on protecting officers from both physical threats and emotional harm. This is accomplished by equipping officers with the tools, techniques and skills needed to slow down some situations and pursue options for safely resolving them. 

This news announcement was published Saturday, April 6, 2019.