Don Gulla and Ellis Amdur have developed unique ONE and Two-day programs that seamlessly combines all force options into one training format. Depending on your professional requirements, this can include: use of firearms, TASER™,  defensive tactics, weapons retention and verbal de-escalation tactics for aggressive and mentally ill individuals.

Professional Requirements

Tactics differ depending on one’s professional responsibilities. Therefore, Gulla and Amdur have specific trainings for first responders, correctional officers,  and probation/parole officers. Members of each profession have different responsibilities, work in different environments, carry different equipment and are governed by different rules of engagement in violent and potentially-violent circumstances. Advanced De-escalation trainings focus on the needs of professionals in specific settings.

Training Equipment

We bring all necessary training equipment to your site—therefore, the acquisition of training equipment is not an expense that needs to be carried by your agency. Participants should bring their department duty belt, as well as attire suitable for both classroom and hands-on training. (Belt keepers are a benefit during handgun retention training). These trainings will use the most current use-of-force training tools: SIRT Training Pistols, Mock Taser Energy Weapons (X-26, X26P, X-2), Inert Taser Cartridges (Taser 7 and 10) and the LASR Training Software. It is an exemplary training for law enforcement, corrections, parole/probation and private security, as well as Advanced CIT, or as refresher classes for CIT-trained officers.

Specific Training Objectives

GullaAmdur Advanced De-escalation training can be general or specific. The trainers tailor-make trainings that combine the objectives of specific professions and specific training objectives. Among the variety of professional responsibilities are general patrol, corrections, probation/parole, court deputies, detectives, SWAT.

We provide advanced training and/or refresher training within the Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) training model. Basic CIT usually  mandates between 32-40 hours of training in an intensive four-five day course. A tremendous amount of information is packed into a very short time. Officers find some information to be more directly relevant than other to their role as first response or corrections officers. After some time trying to implement the skills they have learned, they often find that they could use more information in one area or another. Furthermore, things come up on the job that are not part of basic CIT training.

Similarly, Negotiators and SWAT officers, who must work hand-in-glove, often desire training that goes beyond the basics of Negotiation 101. We tailor-make advanced tactical training, including higher uses of force combined with verbal de-escalation strategies.  In all our work, we fit verbal tactics within your policies and procedures, and physical tactics based on the professional requirements and weaponry (less-lethal and lethal) that the professionals in question carry.

Below are some of the areas of concern that we have previously been asked to address. Our areas of expertise are not confined to these topics, so please feel free to ask:

• General Training – combines defensive tactics, combative tactics with firearms and TASER™, weapons retention and communication with aggressive and mentally ill individuals.
• Vehicle Module – One of the most dangerous circumstances for law enforcement officers concerns vehicles. Not only can they be used as weapons against the officer, but the law enforcement officer requires specific tactics to maintain his or her safety when under attack when in their vehicle. This training emphasizes tactics specific to vehicles: from how best to approach a vehicle, where to stand and where not to stand, how to respond to attack when in or near one’s vehicle, and communication with emotionally disturbed individuals in such circumstances.
• Domestic Violence – These are among the most dangerous circumstances that law enforcement officers face. Such situations are volatile, and can shift from relative calm to violence in an instant. Along with tactical training in managing these often chaotic situations, the officer will be familiarized with the behaviors of those in different types of domestic violence and the character disorders/mental illnesses that may be associated with each, along with best practice communication tactics to deal with them.
• Violence within a Correctional Environment
• Suicide & Suicide-By Cop – This specialized training will focus on communication with the suicidal subject as well as tactical responses to any such incident which, all too often, can turn to a suicide-by-cop scenario. Of course, beyond the vernacular use of the term “suicide-by-cop,” this can easily become “suicide-by-correctional-officer,” “suicide-by-probation/parole officer,” etc.
• Interventions with people showing psychotic behaviors. Differentiating psychosis from excited delirium states, and tactical interventions associates with such individuals.
• Problems with juveniles, including mental illness, violence and suicide
• Frequent callers to the 911 system or inmates in the correctional system who are in constant psychological crisis
• Understanding the Active Shooter from the Inside Out
• Manipulative individuals and sociopathic behaviors. Barricaded subjects with paranoid, borderline or anti-social mindsets

Participant Numbers

Each Advanced De-escalation Training should have a maximum number of thirteen trainees per instructor. Generally speaking, then, trainings max at 26 participants. However, Arrestling and Edgework have a cadre of trainers, so trainings can be set up with greater numbers.

Concerning Agency Required Trainings

Many agencies have statutory or other requirements for specific trainings. One particular advantage of Advanced De-escalation trainings, is that a number of requirements can be covered in a single training—for example: with a single two day workshop, officers can receive state-of-the art training in:

1. Firearms
2. Taser Energy Weapons
3. Defensive Tactics
4. Weapon retention
5. Suicide
6. Mental health issues
7. Verbal de-escalation

Supplemental Information: Required for All Trainings

The participants each must purchase or have purchased for them copies of the Edgework book associated with their profession. (either or both the book on De-escalation appropriate to your profession and The Coordinator)