New facility in Jersey City aims to help police learn de-escalation techniques, help people in crisis

A new public safety facility has opened in Jersey City to teach its approximately 900-member police force de-escalation techniques and help people in crisis. Public Safety Director James Shea led News 12 New Jersey on a tour of the facility, which includes modules where officers can train on domestic violence calls, traffic stops, and simulations involving people having a mental health crisis. “The more opportunity the officers have to do it to practice, to recognize it. the more chance they have in the street to not be facing something for the first time. And to feel unsure and unprepared,” said Shea. “To have our officers in these scenarios that mimic schizophrenia, paranoia, how an autistic person responds, and then let them run through it.” These situations have played out in real life with deadly effects. Recently in Fort Lee, Victoria Lee was shot and killed while in a mental health crisis. And in 2023, Andrew Washington, of Jersey City, was in crisis when he was…..

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