INDIANAPOLIS — Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department officers are in their second week of spring in-service training.
Officers train throughout the year to learn updated and improved best practices. The officers are training right now at the academy on North Post Road.
This session includes techniques for handling mental health calls, like veterans in crisis, Alzheimer's, autism, dementia and developmental disabilities, use of force policy review and de-escalation techniques.
"Just because someone has a mental illness, that does not mean that he or she is violent," IMPD Commander Catherine Cummings said. "That does not mean that he or she is any more violent than the rest of the population. So I want to be clear with that, that mental illness does not mean violence. But it could mean that our officers need to approach in a more delicate manner. Need to talk in a more soft manner. And those are the types of things that we are trying to re-affirm with our officers, that when you are encountering someone who is in a heightened state, that we need to calm the situation down."
One of the tools officers trained with is called the Bolawrap.
According to Bolawrap's website, the device is like "remote handcuffs," and "safely & humanely restrains resisting subjects from a distance without relying on pain compliance tools."
When activated, the device extends a rope and wraps around people.
"The idea behind it is if we are engaging with someone who may have a knife or a hammer or screwdriver, it gives our officers another tool to work to de-escalate the situation, to work to safely take someone into custody who may have a knife or some other type of dangerous instrument," Cummings said.
The tool hasn't been released to officers patrolling the streets yet and is just something the department is testing, Cummings said. Because it sounds like a gunshot, IMPD wants officers to be exposed to the noise before it's used by officers.
The goal is to have all officers exposed to the sound and know what to expect when another officer uses it, Cummings said. Once officers are exposed and can train with the device, a group of specific officers within specific units will test the device to see if it's something the department wants to purchase more of.
It sounds like a gunshot when it's used because of the mechanics, but it isn't a gunshot and the device doesn't look like a gun or a taser, Cummings said.
IMPD officers receive a minimum of 24 hours of formal continuing training annually. Officers also go through training during roll calls and other specialized sessions.
