(Camden) The Camden County Police Department and the Camden County College Police Academy, in conjunction with the nationally renowned Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) hosted a scenario-driven training session on innovative policing tactics on Thursday, July 13. The CCPD was one of seven pilot sites for the groundbreaking training system called ICAT (Integrating Communications, Assessment, and Tactics) more than two years ago. Since that time, the department has fully integrated the program into its recruit and in-service training curricula. At the meeting, trainers from throughout nation and other agencies with ICAT experience discussed and demonstrated implementation of the training guide.
Chief Scott Thomson talked about the foundational practices that are helping police officers evolve and adapt to 21st Century Policing.
“This training is at the heart of our overall policing strategy and the guiding philosophy for our organization,” Thomson said. “These critical tools have been used on countless occasions and have been one of the primary reasons both the community and our officers are safer on the street.”
ICAT is an integrated training approach designed to help officers safely and effectively defuse many types of encounters, especially incidents involving persons who are unarmed or are armed with weapons other than firearms, and who may be experiencing a mental health or other crisis.
The goal of ICAT is to enhance both officer safety and public safety. This objective is achieved by providing police officers with more tools, skills, and options for handling different types of critical incidents, especially those that involve subjects who are acting erratically because of mental illness or behavioral crisis and who are unarmed or armed with a weapon other than a firearm.
