MSU, ELPD study defense training tactics to ensure officer safety

With Cedar Fest sentencing still going strong and Welcome Week less than a month away, MSU and East Lansing police are keeping up with defense training to ensure officer safety.

MSU police inspector Kelly Beck said officer training covers a variety of tactics that include preparing for these events.

“It’s a consistent yearly basis training on riot control-type situations,” Beck said.

To prepare for situations where a suspect is not compliant with an officer, members of the MSU police learn defensive tactics that include being able to apprehend someone who is resisting arrest.

The campus is staffed more heavily than usual for events like Welcome Week, Beck said.

“We’re prepared for it, that’s why we train,” she said.

Officers at the East Lansing Police Department go through annual riot training, East Lansing police Chief Tom Wibert said. This includes learning how to use protective riot gear for another potential Cedar Fest scenario.

ELPD officers also prepare for compliance issues upon arrest. Sometimes force is necessary, Wibert said, especially when alcohol is involved.

The ELPD has a use-of-force policy, which helps them decide when to handcuff someone and what kind of force is appropriate for each situation, Wibert said.

“We learn about anything from just placing your hands on somebody, to levels of weapon use, up to having to shoot them,” Wibert said.

Whether or not force is necessary depends on the situation and the amount of force being used against an officer.

Emily Sander, a studio art senior, said using other methods of resolution would be more effective than trying to resist an arrest.

“I would try and talk it out and get them to understand my point of view,” Sander said.

Being difficult could make the situation worse, Sander said.

“It would just create a bigger mess if you tried to resist arrest,” she said. “It’d be better to just deal with it later on.”

Two years ago, the ELPD began using undercover officers for events like Welcome Week. Undercover policing has cut the rate of crime during Welcome Week by more than half, Wibert said.

During last year’s Welcome Week, which is the busiest three nights of the year for the ELPD, only one robbery was attempted and was broken up by undercover officers, Wibert said.

“It’s an all-hands-on-deck scenario,” he said.

Published on Thursday, July 24, 2008