Officers with the Austin Police Department, along with other public servants, attended a course Thursday taught by Vistelar instructors, covering how to identify, manage and resolve conflict.
Students also learned how to redirect abusive language and enhance community engagement.
Class participants included law enforcement, healthcare professionals, park rangers and others from throughout the country.
“Even though, sometimes, they're giving us the worst of them, we still have to give them the best of us,” said Dave Young, one of the instructors.
He said, typically, conflicts end peacefully but sometimes things escalate.
“Can you avoid conflict? Absolutely not,” Young said.
He said they teach strategies to keep situations from escalating.
“This is probably one of the only classes in the country that we teach, that you should have everybody in the country go to,” said Young.
Officer Michael Barker, a senior police officer at the training academy, works with police cadets on communication and de-escalation.
He took the course and said it’s important to be able to put yourself in someone else’s shoes.
“Try to figure out what it is that they're going through at the time, so we can try to come to a quick resolution,” he explained.