 I'm going to need some assistance down here. An impending confrontation, a potential threat. Every day all over the country, law enforcement officers are placed into situations such as this one, where they must take immediate action to neutralize the danger. It's a way of life for everyone with a bag. Split-second decisions they must make regarding the use of force necessary to control a situation that can change people's lives forever. The responsibility is monumental, because human lives truly do weigh in the balance. But the training professionals at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center recognize the critical nature of these day-to-day decisions. As a result, they've designed a use of force model which can help identify and interpret various levels of resistance within a given situation, and which suggests corresponding standardized responses to each of these perceptions. The purpose of this program is to provide officers and students alike with a graphic illustration of that model. The use of force model is a graphic illustration which will be referenced by all of the FLETC divisions throughout your training here at the Center. It describes the escalation or de-escalation of the required force based upon a demonstrated level of compliance or resistance from a subject. Its purpose is to help create standardized responses based on an officer's reasonable perception of a threat. Now as you can see, it's a colorized, five-tiered model illustrating five levels of threat and their corresponding responses. The bottom level is blue and illustrates the lowest level of activity in the model. This activity includes normal day-to-day, non-threatening activities such as verbal communication with complaint citizens. The green level describes the perception of passive and nonviolent resistance by a subject, which calls for an increased level of verbal communications by the officer in conjunction with the physical response of the contact controls. Moving up the model to the yellow tier signals the need for increased officer awareness due to a recognized threat of active resistance. At this point there's been no assault on the officer, therefore the use of control techniques only should be employed to handle the situation. The orange tier defines an officer's perception of imminent bodily harm to himself or to others based on an assaultive posture or hostile resistance by the subject. This level calls for self-defense techniques along with threat elimination strategies. The highest level of threat is depicted here at the red tier, where imminent serious bodily injury or death may result. With a threat on this level as perceived, the officer must maintain the highest level of risk assessment and be prepared to use survival skills, including the use of deadly force. As you can see, the model also supports double-sided arrows running from the blue tier all the way to the red tier. These arrows represent a logical and legal cause and effect based upon a reasonable perception of risk. They illustrate that an officer has the option to escalate, de-escalate, jump between tears or maintain the level of force that he or she deems appropriate to gain and maintain control of the subject and the situation. It's a dynamic model, isn't it? In theory it effectively defines enforcement electives as a function of a reasonable officer's perceptions. But what about the real world? Does the use of force model apply in real-life law enforcement operations? Let's continue the scenario we saw earlier to see if it does. Saving our jobs, stop, management greed. Management greed is regreed. Saving our jobs, stop, management greed. Saving our jobs, stop, management greed. Save our jobs, stop, management greed. I'm special agent Dave Hale. Can you all quiet down so we can talk about this? You know, quiet, quiet, ma'am. Listen, I don't like the idea of the plant closing any more than you do. And you all certainly have a right to voice your opinion in this matter. But this is not the place to do it. You're gonna have to take your signs and move along. You're creating a hazard here. Not a chance. We're not going anywhere until we get some answers here. Listen, I understand how you feel. I know that times are tough, but there are better ways to deal with this. Right now what you're doing is you're breaking the law. And if you don't leave now, I'm gonna have to arrest you. What do you know about tough times? You're sitting upstairs in your cozy little office in your three-feet suit. I've put my heart and soul into this plant. For 17 years, I've worked myself to death with our clummy wages and now they're closing. I'm shot moving out of the country. What about us? What about our families? What about our retirement? I know that you're upset by this, but there are better ways to deal with this problem. You can take it to the courts, or you can hold legal demonstrations in authorized areas, but you cannot demonstrate here. It's illegal and it's creating a hazard to other people. Don't listen to this guy, Harry. What the hell do you know anyway? We didn't come down here to talk to you, mister. We came down here to talk to somebody else. All our lives we've been doing things the right way. We wanted a guess on employment. Well, we're here to do something about it now. Listen, hold on. Let's just cool down and let's talk about this. We're through talking about it, mister. We're here to do something. For the last time, I'm telling you to move away from this area now. Get your hand out of my face. All right, that's it. You're under arrest. Turn around and put your hands in the rest. You're just a free country. Hey, come on, man. Get your hands off me. I've got every right to be here. No, sir, you don't. And if you don't leave right now, I'm going to arrest you, too. Don't give me that. I'm a taxpayer. I pay your salary, pal. You're supposed to be protecting me. You don't even do this, harassing me. I'm not going anywhere. And you can go to hell. All right, that's it. You're under arrest. Turn around and put your hands over your head. I'm not going anywhere, man. You want a piece of me? All right, drop the knife. Drop the knife. Drop the knife. Come on, you son of a bitch. Come on. Drop the knife. If I have to, that's up to you. Drop the knife. I'm not going to let those keep my job. Drop the knife. I've got my heart on my life. This isn't fair. Drop the knife now. Drop the knife over there. Now. I put your hands over your head. Turn around. Don't move. Well, were you able to distinguish the tears of the model? Remember this. Compliance, passive resistance, active resistance, assaultive with a threat of bodily harm, and assaultive with a threat of serious bodily harm or death. Let's look back and see if we can locate them. Save our job. Right at the beginning, when our demonstrators have just arrived at the steps, we are at the first tier of the model. Officer Bryson utilizes her communication skills in the hope they will be compliant and leave the area without incident. She is not successful in that attempt. When Special Agent Hale arrives in the scene, he again starts on the first level, trying to resolve the problem by gaining their compliance. We know that didn't work either. The demonstrators continue in their posture of passive resistance. However, one of the demonstrators crosses the line, becoming actively resistant. But by escalating his level of enforcement tactics in response to this active resistance, Agent Hale was successful in taking control of one of the demonstrators. A second subject also becomes actively resistant and charges Agent Hale. After being pushed away, the subject becomes extremely belligerent. Agent Hale continues in his effort to gain compliance, but to no avail. The subject escalates the situation to the fourth level of the model by pulling a knife. Recognizing the risk of bodily harm and that intermediate weapons such as batons or chemical sprays are inappropriate due to the level of threat, our officers draw their weapons in response to the assault. The threat de-escalates quickly from here. Our demonstrator becomes compliant and our officers take control of the situation. Or do they? Remember, there are five tiers to the model. So far we've witnessed only four. In addition, orderly escalation or de-escalation up and down the tiers is not always the way enforcement electives work out. We all know that situations can begin at any one of the levels of the model or move from one level to the other in an instant. An officer must be prepared both mentally and physically to administer the proper response based on the level of resistance he perceives. With that in mind, let's rejoin officers Hale and Bryson and see if the situation is really under control. Get him inside now! It's not often that an officer is forced into a response from the fifth tier of the model but he must nonetheless be ready to take that action. If an assault by a subject places an officer or anyone else in danger of serious bodily harm or death he has the right and the commission to protect himself and the others around him. The use of deadly force is a serious matter but it's an option which sometimes becomes necessary. So in the final analysis, the goal of the use of force model is to help officers maintain a high degree of enforcement readiness. That readiness manifests itself in two ways. First, in a willingness to keep enforcement responses on the lowest tier possible through skillful use of physical and communicative strategies. And second, in the resolve to escalate to the appropriate level of response whenever necessary to protect human life and to maintain control of the situation. It is absolutely essential that all law enforcement officers understand the precepts of the use of force model and are fully confident in their ability to navigate up and down and in between its five tiers. So let's briefly recap what the tiers represent. The blue level is the lowest level representing day to day non-threatening activities. The green level represents passive or nonviolent resistance and calls for an increased level of verbal communications and contact controls if necessary. The yellow tier signals active resistance and calls for increased awareness and compliance techniques. Orange warns of hostile resistance and imminent bodily harm to the officer or to others and calls for self-defense techniques. And the red tier represents the threat of serious bodily injury or death and calls for the use of deadly force if necessary. These standards defined by the tiers of the model go to the very heart of the law enforcement philosophy taught here at the Center. And so you will see this illustration often during your training here. Learn it well. The decisions you make regarding the proper use of force will play a major part in your career as law enforcement officer.