b'F E A T U R EBuilding Community TrustRe-imaging de-escalationand crisis interventionBy Assistant Commissioner Dennis Daley, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and Inspector Jason Boutcher, Waterloo Regional Police ServiceI n the fall of 2020, the Commissioner of the Royalchange and promoting investments in the evidence-based CanadianMountedPoliceandChiefsofPoliceresearch, policy frameworks and equipment needed for fromacrossCanadacametogethertoworkonde-escalation and use-of-force training across Canada. issuesofcriticalimportancetoCanadiansandWinds of Changethepolicingcommunity.Asaresult,theDe-escalationandCrisisIntervention(DCI)taskgroupwasAs CACP President Chief Bryan Larkin remarked in his 2021 established with representation from police services acrossCACP Presidents Message: Change may be inevitable, but Canada. The goal of the task group is to move towardprogress is not. Its up to us to make it happen. With pas-standardizing and improving police response options andsion and purpose comes progress, and the CACP is moving evidence-based training. decisively forward to put the wind at our back and put our By emphasizing the preservation and sanctity of life andassociation and policing in a positive position.by using a human-centered policing approach, CanadianToensurepolicingismovingintherightdirection, policeservicesareincreasingpublictransparency,researchrelatedtopoliceuse-of-forcehasgrowncon-improvingdecision-makingandde-escalationtraining,siderably over recent decades. There have been important and making modern options available to enhance de-es- advancementstosupportevidence-based,police-led calation and after-action accountability. Accordingly, thereforms that meet the demands of the Canadian public and Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police (CACP), the Ontariohelp police professionals become more aware of issues Association of Chiefs of Police (OACP) and other provincialthat might impact police crisis interventions. These issues Chiefs of Police associations have become integral alliesinclude the potential role of explicit and implicit biases. As demonstratingleadership,advocatingforoperationalCarleton Universitys Director of the Police Research Lab, 12 H.Q. Winter 2021/22'