Trial resumed at 1 p.m. with testimony from Anthony Rigano, a retired Sergeant with the Elgin Police Department who also served as a crisis intervention instructor and on the Illinois Training and Standards Board.
Rigano said he has been teaching crisis intervention training (CIT) for almost 20 years. CIT consists of a 40-hour course that teaches deescalation skills and tactical response.
Grayson took a CIT course in March of 2023 and was trained on things that included mental illness and using a conflict resolution model. A PowerPoint presentation from that course was shown in the courtroom during Rigano’s testimony.
Conflict resolution, the presentation said, is the recognition, diffusing and controlling of aggressive behavior through crisis intervention techniques and therapeutic communication, and in conjunction with an understanding of attitudes, emotions and behavior. It is used by patrol officers responding to calls, detectives during interviews, crisis intervention teams and first responders in barricade situations.
“The better someone is at conflict resolution, the better they’re going to be at their jobs,” Rigano said. “Mature officers are able to handle challenges to their authority, while immature officers are more likely to not.”
Other things included in the presentation included the importance of timing, types of barriers, different kinds of spaces — public, social, personal and intimate — and active listening.
Active listening includes the use of open-ended questions, giving people the freedom to respond, paraphrasing of main points and the use of direct and clear phrases.
“It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it,” Rigano said. “Good de-escalation more often than not results in compliance.”
Rigano also mentioned the concept of officer-created jeopardy — when an officer’s actions trigger an incident. He pointed to a case in Texas where officers opened a barricaded bathroom door, knowing the man inside was armed with a knife, and used deadly force.
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1:33 p.m. To pass the 40-hour Crisis Intervention training, an officer must complete a role-play. The officers must navigate two scenarios involving actors. One scenario is more clear-cut; the other is not. Rodgers has no further questions.
Day 4: Live updates of Sean Grayson's trial
As part of his training, Rigiano also emphasizes the importance of maturity. He said immature officers don’t handle challenges to their authority well. He writes in his training material “confidence, not arrogance, shows maturity.” He often trains officers to treat each person their encounter as they would like their family or friend to be treated.
[snip]
When an officer realizes the person they are speaking to is in crisis, Rigiano said officers should transition from responding to a call, to responding to a crisis.
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