OnPolicing Blog

On August 5, 2026, the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office) released the National Standards for Law Enforcement De-escalation Training and opened a training certification process built upon them. This release establishes a federally-vetted benchmark against which the quality of de-escalation and crisis response curricula can be measured, a no-cost certification process open to any organization that develops such training, and a public catalog of training programs found to meet the standards. The National Policing Institute (NPI) is a key collaborator in this work.

This work is a direct result of the Law Enforcement De-escalation Training Act of 2022 (LEDTA), which aims to enhance the field’s access to standards-based training designed to support law enforcement responses to conflict and crisis. The passage of LEDTA was an act of interparty consensus, introduced by Senators John Cornyn (R-TX) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and cosponsored by more than twenty senators from both parties. It passed the Senate by unanimous consent in August 2022, cleared the House with bipartisan support, and was signed into law on December 27, 2022. Its endorsements included those from a diverse coalition of stakeholders, such as the National Fraternal Order of Police (NFOP), the Major Cities Chiefs Association (MCCA), the National Sheriffs’ Association (NSA), and the National Association of Police Organizations (NAPO) alongside the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), the American Psychiatric Association, and the American Association on Health and Disability, among many others. The statute authorized $124 million and directed the DOJ to develop or identify effective curricula, establish a certification process, maintain a catalog of certified training, fund training implementation at the state-level, and evaluate impact.

The value of a national strategy for de-escalation training

The standards respond to a specific, documented gap in the field. Namely, the absence of clear, consistent guidance on what de-escalation training should include and how it should be delivered to maximize its impact. More than 50 off-the-shelf programs are available to law enforcement, varying substantially in content, length, and instructional method. Nearly all describe themselves as evidence-based, but few agencies have the staff time or research capacity to assess the value and validity of different training programs or to develop their own training. The release of the COPS Office training certification process and public training catalog provides an accessible, practical way for agencies to identify programs that have been vetted by subject matter experts against a national set of standards that consider training development, content, and delivery.

How the standards were developed

NPI and the COPS Office developed the national standards by drawing on the statutory requirements of LEDTA, completing a review of research and best practice, and conducting listening sessions with more than 50 professionals, including representatives from national law enforcement organizations and agencies, experts in de-escalation and crisis response training, experts in behavioral health and intellectual and developmental disabilities (including individuals with personal experience), and specialists in constitutional policing, civil rights, and civil liberties. Representatives from 20 organizations then reviewed and provided input on draft standards, among them CALEA, IACP, IADLEST, NFOP, NAPO, NSA, Major County Sheriffs of America (MCSA), National Organization of Black Law Enforcement (NOBLE), the National Tactical Officers Association (NTOA), the Small and Rural Law Enforcement Executives Association (SRLEA), NAMI, and The Arc of the United States.

While there is not a large body of evidence produced from evaluations of law enforcement de-escalation training, research from related fields like adult learning and education science, behavioral health, psychiatry, and criminal justice examinations of officer behavior, training, and police-community interactions offered important insights for the standards’ development. This underlying evidence base is documented in a companion resource, Guidance for Safer Policing: A Blueprint for Law Enforcement De-escalation Training (forthcoming), developed by NPI, the Police Executive Research Forum, and the DOJ Bureau of Justice Assistance.

What the standards require

There are 14 standards for law enforcement de-escalation training: seven governing training development and delivery and seven governing training content. Each contains sub-standards that distinguish mandatory elements, expressed as what training must do, from recommended practices, expressed as what training should do. These standards apply to core, end-user curricula designed to train practitioners directly. A separate, supplemental set of standards to guide the development, content, and delivery of train-the-trainer de-escalation curricula is forthcoming from the COPS Office.

The development and delivery standards address the architecture of a curriculum. A certified program must…

• Provide a complete instructional package: a model delivery outline, instructor qualification guidance, presentation resources, detailed lesson plans, participant reference materials, and assessment instruments that include pre- and post-training tests and long-term follow-up measures.
• Be designed for in-person or hybrid delivery, since online-only instruction cannot support real-time de-escalation skill practice.
• Document its source material through citation and rely on peer-reviewed research where available.
• Incorporate real-world examples, which may rely on body-worn camera footage, and should present them in balance: successful de-escalation, missed opportunities, and situations in which immediate tactical response is required and de-escalation is not appropriate.
• Include scenario practice conducted in person with role players or extended reality technology, supported by written objectives and immediate instructor feedback.
• Be developed in collaboration with crisis response subject matter experts.
• Address the impact, signs, and symptoms of trauma.
  The seven content standards specify subject matter for curricula. Certified training must…
• Instruct in de-escalation techniques including body language, active listening, rapport building, communication with people in crisis or with disabilities, and tactical repositioning, with recommended attention to team approaches, peer intervention strategies, and strategic disengagement.
• Build the capacity to recognize crisis, including the signs and symptoms of mental illness, substance use disorders, and disabilities, while making clear that officers are not expected to diagnose.
• Cover the legal framework governing use of force, including Tennessee v. Garner (1985) and Graham v. Connor (1989), with recommended inclusion of Barnes v. Felix (2025) in the context of totality-of-the-circumstances analysis, along with disability rights law including the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Olmstead v. L.C. (1999).
• Identify the community-based resources available to responding officers.
• Teach critical thinking and response adaptability.
• Address the sanctity and preservation of all human life.
• Address first responder wellness, requiring training to connect trauma, stress, compassion fatigue, and burnout to decision-making, and acknowledge the demands of the current policing environment. This underscores the importance of officer safety and well-being, which is paramount to effective de-escalation.

How certification works

Participation in the certification process is voluntary and free of charge. Any public or private entity that has developed curricula covering LEDTA topics may submit through the submission portal available at LEDTAtraining.org at any time. Multiple subject matter experts will assess each submission against the standards using a structured rubric, and the COPS Office issues the final determination.

The certification decision is shared within 60 business days of submission.

Curricula are certified for a three-year period and added to the public LEDTA training catalog published on the COPS Office’s LEDTA page and LEDTAtraining.org. Curricula that do not meet the standards receive written recommendations for enhancement and an offer of technical assistance at no cost. There is no limit on the number of resubmissions. The standards and the assessment process are in a pilot phase and may be refined as the field puts them to use.

What this means for agencies

Agencies are encouraged to review any planned and in-progress de-escalation and crisis response training against the national standards. Agencies that have developed their own curricula are eligible to submit them for certification. The LEDTA Training Catalog can also serve as a resource, offering insights into training programs reviewed and vetted by subject matter experts. The Catalog will include a basic description of certified training programs and directions on where to access additional information on specific curricula.

What this means for training providers

For organizations that develop and/or deliver de-escalation and crisis response training, certification is now the mechanism by which a curriculum remains eligible for federal training dollars. Specifically, following the release of the national standards, all DOJ funding for de-escalation and crisis response training must go to LEDTA-certified training programs or courses. Certification also confers a verified claim of alignment with national standards, placement in the Catalog where agencies can search, expert feedback on the curriculum itself, and eligibility for peer-to-peer engagement on implementation.

Submissions must come from the organization that developed the curriculum. An agency or organization delivering another organization’s training program should direct the training developer to the certification process rather than submit on its behalf. An organization delivering a certified curriculum it did not develop should deliver it in accordance with the developer’s instructions, since certification applies to the curriculum as submitted.

The big picture

The role of law enforcement officers is critical to society. The training offered to these professionals should reflect the complexity of their responsibilities and equip them with the education, skills, and strategies to support their work. De-escalation is one of many important tools officers should have at their disposal, complementing established best practices, professional judgment, and commitment to public safety. Training is integral for officers’ development and application of these skills.

The LEDTA certification process builds an inventory of high-quality training. For the first time, the field will have a documented account of what de-escalation training exists, what it contains, and where evidence remain thin. The research base for this training is narrower than the field’s reliance on it would suggest. A federal catalog is a critical step toward changing that, because it makes systematic comparison and assessment possible.

The National Standards, the submission portal, the catalog, and supporting resources for trainers, curriculum developers, and agencies are available at LEDTAtraining.org without login. To learn more, contact the project team at LEDTAtraining@policinginstitute.org.

Bipartisan Law Enforcement De-escalation Training Act Introduced in Senate

Council on Criminal Justice. (2021).

De-escalation policies and training: Policy assessment. Council on Criminal Justice, Task Force on Policing. https://assets.foleon.com/eu-central-1/de-uploads-7e3kk3/41697/de-escalation_training.9f4b662e97c2.pdf; 21CP Solutions. (2023).

Task force on 21st-century policing: A renewed call to action. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5ad62e3aec4eb7c4b00e03a0/t/644718fc677c5618827f6d40/1682381053513/Task_Force_Call_to_Action_Final_42523.pdf