CCPD body cam footage raises questions about de-escalation training

Body camera footage from the Cape Coral Police Department has us at WINK News asking questions about de-escalation training and about how it was handled.

On Tuesday, we asked our very own WINK safety and security specialist how well CCPD de-escalated this intense situation.

On Monday, we showed you a video from CCPD where they were preaching the importance of their de-escalation training.

In the video, you see officers arrive at a home where parents tell police their son, who’s armed with a hatchet, wants to harm himself and his parents.

Once inside the home, police repeatedly tell him to drop the weapon.

As the suspect raised the hatchet police then subdued him with a Taser.

Now, we are getting a better understanding of what could be going through officers’ minds in this situation.

WINK News reporter Asha Patel spoke with our safety and security specialist on the topic.

She wanted to know, did CCPD do the right thing?

WINK News Safety and Security Specialist Kristen Ziman said absolutely.

Ziman said that anything could happen at the moment when the man held up the hatchet.

As a police officer, you never know what you could be met with.

“Drop the hatchet, drop the hatchet, drop the hatchet. I’m gonna taze you, man, drop the hatchet,” said one of the officers in the video.

You have to be ready to take action.

The body camera footage is from when two Cape Coral police officers responded to a call from parents who said their son was threatening himself and others.

When officers went inside, the 35-year-old was holding a hatchet in each hand, and at one point raised one.

“They made the judgment call to deploy the Taser, a less lethal option than firing a firearm,” said Ziman, who also called it the right choice.

“It was the right call at that moment, and as you saw, you did have a deadly force option, you had the officer covering the other officer with a Taser in case they have to resort to deadly force,” said Ziman.

She said once you see that hatchet go up, anything could happen.

“You see that individual raise that hatchet and that puts the officers in a deadly force situation. Is he going to charge at the officers? Is he going to throw that hatchet at the officers? Again, a deadly force situation. They made the judgment call to deploy the Taser,” Ziman explained.

The CCPD said if lethal force had been used, it would have been justified because the man raised the hatchet, but using lethal and nonlethal coverage and de-escalating techniques kept any tragedies from happening at bay.