Horry County police officers to go through use of force training

CONWAY, SC (WBTW) – The Horry County Police Department is taking a new look at the way it trains officers after use of force in law enforcement has been in the headlines nationally.

Horry County Police Chief Joseph Hill says he’s implementing crisis intervention training, or additional training for every officer in the department for when things don’t go as planned.

If you look around at all of the encounters that law enforcement have and has had throughout the nation, there is that need to train officers to deescalate,” said Hill.

Hill told News13 at the beginning of 2017 one of his main goals for the year was to better training for all of his officers.

“Case after case after case, we have officers that rush into situations, and they’re doing the best job they can possibly do with the skill set they have, but it causes conflict,” said Hill.

All around the United states, we’ve heard the stories of officers having to resort to use of force, and Hill says he wants to make sure that doesn’t happen here.

“What we’re trying to do is give officers that toolbox, that tool set to be able to deal with so many folks that we have in our community that are facing crisis,” said Hill.

Hill says the idea of crisis intervention training is that his officers will be able to help you through whatever you’re facing while keeping you and officers safe.

“What we want to train our officers to do is to back up, slow the situation down, get cover, and basically wear that person down until the point that basically, they give up peacefully,” said Hill.

Hill says the training will start with patrol officers since they’re the ones who deal with day-to-day encounters, but every officer in the department will have to go through the program.

“It’s the institutional culture in the police department. I just need to put training behind that, solidify that, classify that, and make sure it’s consistent throughout the whole entire agency,” said Hill.

Hill says they’re working through vendors right now to find the best people to come in the department and help with training.

He says he wants to get started implementing the training as soon as possible.