Officers with the Yakima Police Department are going through de-escalation training Friday. Spokesman Mike Bastinelli says the class called "Integrating Communications Assessment and Tactics" part of the 100 hours of training each officer is required to go through every year. Bastinelli says it teaches officers to evaluate every situation they find themselves including those in which their lives are in danger. "The last thing an officer wants to do is pull out his weapon and kill someone. The best case scenario is if that situation could end peacefully."

Bastinelli says the officers go through a morning of classroom work and spend the afternoon going through various scenario based training at State Fair park in Yakima.
Bastinelli says the Yakima Police Department is one of the leading departments in the State conducting ongoing de-escalation training.

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