Saving both sides: Scottsdale’s dedication to de-escalation
Saving both sides: Scottsdale’s dedication to de-escalation
“Using lethal force is one of the most traumatic things that we can do in this job,” Scottsdale, Ariz., police officer Jaecob Hanser explains. “Whether it's justified or not, it's something an officer has to live with for the rest of their careers.”
Hanser, a Montana native, spent six years in the Army with the Military Police before moving to Arizona. He joined the Army straight out of high school because it was a way for him to be a police officer at age 18, instead of waiting to be 21. Almost all agencies require officers to be at least 21 years old upon academy graduation. Packed with experience, he’s been with the department for nearly 13 years, but riding with him on this September day was Officer Nick Hackelton, a rookie, a recent graduate only a few months into his time with the Scottsdale force and still in training.
The call from dispatch was “an emergency hot tone call, of a subject threatening with a weapon — threatening with a gun, not just a weapon. Threatening self-harm, [threatening] to harm family members and police officers — anybody that showed up,” as Hanser describes.
“Obviously hearing that coming over the radio, you being a brand new police officer, it gets very real, very quickly,” Hackelton remembers. “You have to take a sec, calm yourself down, just breathe for a minute, and then do what you're trained to do.”
The two officers were the first to arrive on scene. Met by the individual's husband, he explained his wife's previous history of suicide attempts, substance abuse and mental health issues. He also relayed she didn't have access to any firearms. With the help of a crisis response team member, available for situations such as this, the group was able to convince the woman to appear in the front doorway and engage in dialogue.
“We sat there and talked with her for probably a good 20 minutes,” says Hanser, “and within those 20 minutes, she went in the house several times. I noted that she didn't have any shoes on it at first. The third time she went back in the house, she left the door open and I remember thinking, 'I hope she's just going to get some shoes to come back out,' because she left the door open and we could kind of see her rummaging in the kitchen area of the house. So when she came back to the door, that was the first thing I looked for. I saw she had some shoes on, and then I saw her in possession of a large pink kitchen knife – and she was holding it to her throat.
“At that point, our crisis response member was providing commands — loud verbal commands over the PA — telling her to drop the knife. She refused to listen to anything that we had to say, and just started walking towards our position in the street. Her approach towards us was rapid. It was intentional.”
Standing next to Hanser was Hackelton, his trainee and just two months into the job, with the unenviable task of providing lethal cover as the subject moved forward with a deadly weapon. If necessary, it would be the rookie’s duty to use lethal force to protect himself and the other officers. Lethal force would have been justified per state law and department policy, but Hanser was determined to safely de-escalate the situation, both for the sake of the subject and for his trainee.
Hanser successfully deployed his TASER 10 energy weapon at a distance of 24.1 feet, temporarily incapacitating the subject. “We strive to de-escalate,” he explains. “We want to de-escalate a situation as best as possible. That's the ultimate goal. We don't want to have to shoot people if we can help it, and in this particular situation, I was fortunate enough to have been involved in the TASER 10 program.”
The fortunate outcome was a small step toward a much larger goal.
Axon Presents: Safe Journeys
Axon Presents: Safe Journeys
Evolving de-escalation
Scottsdale Police Chief Jeff Walther has been with the department for just over 30 years. He was born in upstate New York, but says as he smiles, “My parents moved out here when I was six, almost seven. Literally, they said, ‘where does it never snow?’” They pointed to Phoenix on a map, quit their jobs and never looked back.
When Walther was a teen visiting family back on the East Coast, he went on a ride-along with his uncle, a police officer in Rochester, N.Y. “He connected with the community, which I thought was pretty cool. He went into businesses, people knew him. He was a community policing officer before ‘community policing’ really came into its own. And so I watched him connect with people. I was in love from that moment on.”
The concept of community policing stuck with Walther throughout his career and helps guide how he thinks about policy, including use of force. “We have a responsibility to the community...that responsibility, it also connects to the amount of force that we use in the community.
“When I came on in 1994, [de-escalation] was nothing more than good communication skills, right? We were great at the skill set of firearms and defensive tactics and driving all of those things that we used to think make a great police officer. Until we realized, we actually should spend as much time teaching them how to talk to one another or talk to the community versus all these hard skills. You're gonna talk to far, far more people than you're gonna shoot. And so, really we started to work on those tactics.
“But really [where we’ve made progress] today is in the advent of newer technologies — and technologies now added to great communication skills — make for an incredible de-escalation partner.”
This is our moonshot
Axon is on a mission to cut gun-related deaths between police and the public in the U.S. by 50% by 2033. In partnership with law enforcement leaders, community organizations, elected officials and others, achieving this “moonshot” goal will require new ideas, new technologies, new training procedures, new policies, and even new regulations to guide the way.
“Through a shared commitment to research, dialogue, innovation and implementation, we believe we can become greater than the sum of our parts to protect life,” says Axon CEO and Founder Rick Smith. “This is not Axon's moonshot. This is our moonshot.”
Announced in January 2023, TASER 10 is the latest generation TASER energy weapon, featuring a maximum range of 45 feet, almost double the range of previous TASER energy weapon models. This increased distance allows officers to engage with individuals from a safer distance. For those who may not respond to verbal de-escalation, this gives those involved more time and space to resolve the situation without loss of life. Just four months after its debut, Scottsdale Police deployed TASER 10 in May of 2023, first by trialing the weapon with a handful of officers.
"We started to see different deployments that were saving lives and two different lives that we saved just because we had that weapon system," says Walther. "I thought, ‘I gotta get this out to the entire organization.’
My job has so many different facets, but one of those facets is risk manager. It's my job to look at inherent risk that my people are involved in every day. What's the risk to them? What's the risk to the community? And then ultimately, my job is to lead them, through great technology and how can I reduce their risk? And how can I mitigate issues for the city and the police department? TASER 10 was a no-brainer.
Today, Scottsdale Police deploys over 100 TASER 10 weapons, with a complete rollout to its 400 officers scheduled before the end of the year.
“I really believe that the TASER 10 is what Rick [Smith] was trying to design in the garage in the early ‘90s, right?” says Walther. “Something that is that game changer. The vast majority of citizenry, they know what a TASER [energy weapon] is. They just don't know the evolution.”
A key piece of the department’s TASER program over the coming years, he adds, will be educating the public on why TASER 10 is a positive for the community. “We're gonna talk about it at the community level to show you and show the community: here's the difference. Here's how it saves lives.”
Gun-related deaths between police and the public have risen steadily over the past six years. Reversing — or even slowing — this trend won’t be easy if departments and communities aren’t working together. In addition to more lives saved, Walther believes this cooperation could lead to another lasting benefit.
“I think if we reduce deadly encounters between the police and the public by 50%, you're gonna see trust likely increase by the same amount,” he explains. “Increasing trust between the police department and the community that they serve is essential to reducing crime, reducing violence in particular. I think if there isn't as much of a worry that if my friend or loved one or child has a gun or has a mental break or is on drugs and they come at the police. If I know that they're working hard to employ a different piece of technology instead of just a firearm all the time, I think that's gonna build some community trust. And I think community trust is vital to us working together."
Life-saving impact
The successful TASER 10 deployment meant Hackelton didn’t have to use his firearm that day. “I think what really hit me was after the fact,” he reflects. “Like, you kind of go home that night and like eat your dinner and be normal and, it kind of hits you then, you're like, 'dang, I almost took someone's life today.'
“You have to protect your fellow officers and the people that are on scene. Especially in the circumstances of someone hurting and needing help. They were just hurting that day. And I am glad I don't have to live with that for the rest of my life.”
The subject in this call was attempting to commit “suicide by cop,” Hanser says. “We know that because she told us that later on. She asked us why we didn’t shoot her.”
“She's alive because of this piece of technology that we brought to bear,” adds Walther. “And now she can get the help she so desperately needs.” But Walther also believes this incident demonstrates the importance of TASER 10 not just for civilians, but also for officers.
“Think about what that does in terms of the capability and the mental wellbeing of my officers. You know, it was Jake, who's a senior officer, who was a field training officer, with the TASER 10. Now, let's say you don't have the TASER 10, and now Officer Hackleton, fresh out of the Academy, has to engage this older woman with a butcher knife in a deadly force encounter, and then shoots and likely kills her. Today's ballistics likely kills her. So that's gonna affect him the rest of his career, as opposed to the great story where he tells his friends and his family, 'Yeah, I was on lethal cover, but boy, that TASER 10, you know, ended her charge at the vehicle and us very quickly.' And so there's a positive to that story and not a negative to that story.“
TASER 10 is just one more tool that can help officers “bring calm to chaos”, as Hanser puts it.
Hackelton, now nearly two years into his career in his hometown, is still fulfilling his youthful aspirations.
“It was always a childhood dream of mine,” he says. “I know it's like, there's those cliché things, saying like, you wanna go help people and save people, but I mean, that really was one of my driving factors, I think. I didn't want like a normal desk job. I wanted to be helping people and out in the community. I like working the street. I like being out there talking to people, in their moments of panic and worst times and being able to help people and make Scottsdale a better place. I really do enjoy that.
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