Harrisonburg police officers continue ‘ICAT’ training

HARRISONBURG, Va. (WHSV) — Members of the Harrisonburg Police Department are training to handle crisis situations and continuing their new training program, “Integrating Communication, Assessment and Tactics," or ICAT. The program runs on September 14 and 15.

Officers took part in real-life scenarios with a person acting out crisis situations. The goal was to de-escalate them through communication tactics. Officers worked in pairs to assess the scene and talk with the role player.

In one of the real-life scenarios, a man was holding a weapon and officers approached him and tried to get him to put it down.

“What we’re trying to do is figure out when we show up, how can we effectively communicate to dissolve the situation, assessing the situation to see how much danger is involved and then what tactics can we use to come up with a positive resolution,” Sgt. Chris Monahan with the Harrisonburg Police Department said.

Sgt. Monahan said this training is one of the many programs officers participate in throughout the year and believes the model has been successful so far.

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