New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
‘A different type of mindset’
NHPD, Yale offer training for cops to aid traumatized kids
NEW HAVEN — The Yale Child Study and New Haven Police Department Monday announced the release of a training toolkit designed to aid officers in addressing trauma suffered by children and families in the wake of crime and violence.
Hilary Hahn, a research scientist with the Child Study Center at the Yale School of Medicine, said the curriculum introduces officers to the science of trauma and offers strategies for them to identify and help those in need of aid.
New Haven officers already are trained in a version of the program.
The curriculum has now been made available online for other departments to
use, as well, Dr. Steven Marans, director of the Childhood Violent Trauma Center at the Child Study Center, said Monday. In the future, the department and center will offer in-person training as well, Hahn said, as has been done to a limited extent in the past.
Marans said that, as the center has learned in partnering with the NHPD and aiding young people over the last 30 years, officers can provide immediate assistance to those suffering from trauma.
Among other aspects of the training, Marans said officers are told that young people who are sitting quietly in the wake of a traumatic episode may have withdrawn from the situation and suffered “traumatic dysregulation,” making it harder for them to engage with the outside world.
They are also informed that adults and young people exhibiting a great deal of anger after an incident may be wrestling with the effects of trauma, instead of choosing to be uncooperative with police.
“These kind of observations become key to helping officers maintain their role and extend their role in providing order,” said Marans.
Assistant Chief Renee Dominguez, trained as an instructor in the program, said the hope was that officers would be able to step back, take a moment and better assess situations that may not immediately appear to have caused lasting pain.
This has become common practice in New Haven, she said, but may be a change for officers elsewhere.
“It’s a different type of mindset. You have to stop, you have to slow things down, and you have to recognize the child who just went through something,” said Dominguez.
She noted the example of a child who seemingly slept through a traumatic situation — that may appear fine to an officer at first glance, but could also represent an unhealthy response — or children who are not present during an incident, but will return to a home affected by it.
In the past, Dominguez and Marans have noted that officers are informed about breathing exercises and the importance of providing information in a measured manner, thus organizing it on behalf of the person who’s been traumatized, alleviating that responsibility.
Officers also are taught to speak about how the reactions of children vary by age — including that young children may be shy, those 6-12 may be curious, and adolescents may be standoffish or project false bravado — provided protocols for speaking with them and meeting their needs, and offered sample responses to common questions, according to a 2018 version of the training available on the website for the International Association of Chiefs of Police.
The one-day course is accredited by the association, making it available for officers in 35 states and widening the reach of the effort, Hahn and Chief Otoniel
Reyes said.
“This is about recognizing that the healing needs to start as soon as possible when there’s a traumatic event. And often times, as Dr. Marans has taught us, the people in authority are best equipped to begin that healing. They provide security; they provide a sense of calm in a moment where there’s a lot of confusion; where there’s a lot of pain and obviously a lot of trauma,” said Reyes. “We’re proud of the work that we’ve done here, and we’re proud that we can be a model for departments around the country.”
Reyes said that the role of police officers in our society encompasses this level of care — a potentially counterintuitive idea to some, but not in his mind. That mindset of service had been instilled in New Haven officers for years, he said, allowing information about young people in pain to flow through the system.
“We’re now utilizing those eyes and ears, of those officers going in on a day-to-day call, and instead of that incident of a child going unnoticed or unaddressed, now we’re making a phone call to a partner,” said Reyes. “We’re actually nurturing, dealing with these issues in the community. It’s not about turning the police officers away from their traditional roles; it’s about capitalizing on the fact that, one, they’re there in the first place, and two, what our tools are, which are to assess, to investigate — now we’re reporting it out.”
U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-3, praised the department and the Yale Child Study for their efforts.
“If we can prevent the suffering of young children, if we can empower our first responders to better heal their community, if we can divert children from hurt to health, then we must be doing that,” said DeLauro. “And do everything we can to do it.”