Tulsa Nonprofit Partners With Rogers Co. Sheriff’s Office For New Type Of Conflict Training

A Tulsa nonprofit called Color Free America is teaming up with the Rogers County Sheriff's office to implement a new hands-on use of force training designed to keep both officers and suspects safer.

The training is more important than ever after the death of George Floyd.

Deputies will be using tactical dummies which represents a suspect, but the dummy is equipped with censors that show just how much pressure you are using. The idea is to teach deputies how to safely take control of a combative suspect.

"Let’s create as close to real as it can get, without using someone real. Let's really look at the more sensitive areas of the body. And by working out with it, you become aware of what you are doing,” said Tulsa Pastor Dr. Howard Hatcher, the founder of Color Free America.

Hatcher is helping spearhead this training that focuses on hand-to-hand combat. He said on average, an officer has 180 physical conflicts in their career, but said so much training is focused shooting, even though most officers will never fire their gun on the job.

"There was something wrong in the particular situation regarding George Floyd. There were things that could have been done differently and everyone could have gone home alive,” said Hatcher.

Hatcher said after Floyd’s death, policies changed across the country, and it's caused officers to be apprehensive.

Both Hatcher and Rogers County Sheriff Scott Walton said it is important to find new ways to train, but they both say officers still need to be allowed to do their job effectively, so they can make it home at night. Walton said his deputies were forced to fight with a suspect just the other day.

"It took all four officers and a guy in a camper to get the handcuffs on a guy to get him under control. We want to make sure we don't train our officers to go out and commit suicide,” said Walton. “We want to protect them and give them the ability to go out and protect the community they took an oath to protect."

Both Hatcher and Walton said it's important for the community and police to work together to find solutions. They said a big problem is a lack of understanding on both sides, which creates division.

"Here's a group of people that are actually trying to help law enforcement do our job,” said Walton.

"Our children will have nothing to inherit but a boiling pot of chaos if we don't start working together. We want to protect tomorrow by working together today,” said Hatcher.

Hatcher said the Rogers County Sheriff’s Office is the first department in the nation to use this type of pressure censor training.