De-escalation techniques on daily duty: A body-worn camera analysis of police-civilian interactions in the Netherlands

Purpose – This study examines the de-escalation techniques police officers employ during everyday encounters with civilians and assesses how the use of these techniques varies when civilians exhibit different emotional and behavioral states. Design/methodology/approach – We systematically analyzed body-worn camera footage from 82 real-life police-civilian interactions in the Netherlands, coding 35 distinct de-escalation techniques. Using Firth’s logistic regression with cluster bootstrap, we assessed differences in technique use for interactions involving civilians showing intoxicated, incomprehensible, or heightened emotional behavior, compared to interactions with civilians not exhibiting these behaviors. Findings – Officers employed the full range of de-escalation techniques, most frequently utilizing communication strategies. The use of specific techniques varied with the civilians’ emotional and behavioral states. For 22 de-escalation techniques, the odds that officers use them proved to be either significantly higher or lower in the investigated types of interactions. Sixteen techniques were specific for one type of interaction (e.g., civilian showing incomprehensible behavior), while six were significant for more than one type of interaction. Most differences were observed in interactions with civilians exhibiting heightened emotional behavior, where, for example, the odds of officers remaining calm were higher compared to interactions with civilians not showing such behaviors.Originality/value – Few studies have examined officer de-escalation techniques in real-life interactions using body-worn camera footage. This study advances our understanding of what de-escalation entails in daily practice and how officers adapt their techniques to the civilians’ emotional and behavioral states.