How N.J. Police Are Training Officers to Avoid Deadly Force

The man was armed with a butcher knife that he clutched at the ready as he hustled toward an office building in downtown Camden.

Alarmed residents had called 911, fearing the man could be moments from violence. For Camden County Police Officer Nezerel Rodriguez, the mission was simple, even if executing it was not.

Disarm the knife-wielding man. Prevent him from harming others or himself before it was too late.

It’s the kind of volatile encounter that can so easily go wrong, tensions ratcheting, the man charging, police opening fire. Another officer-involved shooting that in split seconds claims a life.

Yet Rodriguez, who is in his third year on the force, is going to do everything he can to avoid that. He’s part of a growing effort in New Jersey to improve how officers respond to fraught incidents, to give them the tools to avoid tragedy.

He’s going to stay calm. He’s going to keep his gun out of sight. He’s going to talk to the man, slowly and without rancor, and persuade him that no harm will come if he puts down the blade.

“I just want to make sure that you are safe and the people around you are safe,” Rodriguez matter-of-factly tells the man, who stands nervously on the grass. “Walking around with a knife in your hand is not going to be the best way to do that.”

And Rodriguez is going to practice doing this again and again and again.

Because, thanks to technology, Rodriguez is role-playing through a fictional scenario.

He’s in a darkened training room at county police headquarters, where a simulator allows officers to rehearse any number of high-risk calls – including the “pedestrian with a knife” now projecting onto a video screen.

Reducing officer-involved shootings

The armed man that August day wasn’t real, but the outcome Camden County police are trying to avoid very much is.

Since 2019, at least 68 people have been shot and killed by law enforcement in the Garden State, according to a review by NJ.com. That’s nearly 10 people each year, many of whom were suffering from mental health crises when police encountered them.

It is a toll that has prompted reform efforts in recent years in New Jersey, even as the vast majority of those officers are found to have acted justifiably by authorities when they took a life.

Still, the impacts of each shooting are often sweeping.

There’s a grieving family left behind, and protests calling for justice. There’s a criminal investigation, on top of civil lawsuits that can cost communities millions of dollars.

And, though rarely talked about, there are also the officers themselves, some of whom are so psychologically affected by the deadly incident, their lives also fall apart.

NJ.com found that since 2019, at least 64 police officers across the state have retired with disability pensions following fatal shootings. That represents 40% of the officers named in those encounters, at a cost of $4.9 million each year to the public pension system.

The shootings produce “all different types of trauma,” said Camden County Deputy Chief Chris Sarlo, who has championed deescalation tactics. “We realized that there’s better ways to do this.”

The simulator and other equipment used in Camden’s training cost the department about $300,000, according to county spokesman Dan Keashen. He called that money well spent, considering the hefty costs communities shoulder when their officers overstep.

“The return on investment is almost priceless,” Keashen said. “And I’m sure our insurance carrier would say the same thing.”

Sarlo said police have seen success when they slow down encounters, keeping their distance and their cool and looking for natural barriers – like a car parked on the street – to give them cover while they negotiate.

Officers are even allowed to retreat – in cop speak, “tactical repositioning” – if it keeps the situation from going haywire.

“We realized the more we do things like this, the less shootings we’re going to have, the less stabbings we’re going to have,” Sarlo said.

Adopting innovations

“I would like to say we’ve done a very good job,” Sarlo said.

Some of their innovations have been adopted statewide.

New Jersey now says police officers should only use force as an “absolute last resort,” with cops having a duty to deescalate if they can. Under beefed-up training requirements, officers across the state now receive instruction in the same kinds of tactics that Camden has embraced.

Another state initiative pairs police officers with mental health professionals when they respond to behavioral crisis calls. The ARRIVE Together program was launched in 2021 by the Attorney General’s Office, which said police officers shouldn’t be asked to solve complex social problems alone.

The push came as prosecutors said that more than half the people shot and killed by police suffer from mental illness or substance abuse. Those groups accounted for two out of every three police uses of force in general, the state said.

ARRIVE Together is now in all 21 counties, including New Jersey’s 15 largest municipalities, and had recorded 16,600 interactions through early March.

When police need to use force

Not all police shootings can be avoided, said John Shjarback, a professor of justice studies at Rowan University who has written about them.

He points to instances in which police are confronted with a gun and must make a split-second decision: Shoot, or potentially be shot.

“When they’re facing a firearm threat, there’s very little discretion involved,” Shjarback said. “Most officers are going to take that shot.”

That reality was brought home in November, when authorities said a Camden County police sergeant wounded a gunman who opened fire on another officer in the city’s Fairview section.

Authorities said Marques Jones, 25, of Camden was dressed all in black and armed with a handgun with an illegal high-capacity magazine. Late that night, officers drove up on him as they patrolled a neighborhood known for its drug activity, officials said.

Officer William Carter tried to stop Jones, who began shooting at him, firing at least two shots, according to a police affidavit. Police never saw his weapon until he opened fire, authorities said.

Carter was hit in the left arm and hospitalized for a day. But police said it could have been tragic: The round first struck Carter in the chest, but ricochetted off his bulletproof vest.

Sgt. Anthony Berg returned fire, critically wounding Jones, who was hit in the back with a gunshot, according to the affidavit. Jones is charged with attempted murder and related crimes.

When guns aren't involved

In his research, Shjarback has compared police shootings across the United States. He’s found that New Jersey – and much of the Northeast – has some of the lowest rates of fatal encounters in the country. The state placed fifth lowest per capita, which Shjarback chalks up to its restrictions on gun ownership and availability.

Of the 68 deaths examined by NJ.com, 35 involved people who authorities said were armed with guns – 52%. Knives, machetes and other blades were recorded in one in three encounters. Just a handful of those slain were unarmed.

It is in incidents that lack firearms where police killings can most easily be reduced, Shjarback said. And that’s where deescalation tactics pay dividends, he said.

Shjarback has observed Camden’s training and said it speaks to how that can be accomplished.

At the simulation observed by NJ.com, Rodriguez never showed his gun to the man with the knife, keeping it hidden behind his back as they interacted.

He never raised his voice, and avoided threats or warnings that could have provoked the man. Over the radio, he asked officers headed to the scene to avoid using their sirens, and to block the street and keep pedestrians from it.

“Can I ask what’s going on today, why you have a knife in your hand?” Rodriguez asked the man, whose responses were controlled by another training officer stationed feet away at a computer monitor.

“Is it a crime to have a knife?” the man asked.

“I never said it was a crime, sir,” Rodriguez said. “But as you can see, it’s not a normal thing to do. You already scared some of the people in the area and I just want to look out for your safety as well.”

The entire encounter took a minute and a half, and ended without violence, with the man agreeing to put down the blade and the backpack he was carrying.

The approach differs from how an officer would have handled that man 20 years ago, said Sarlo, the deputy chief.

Then, police would have drawn their guns and commanded him to drop his weapon. And if he failed to comply, they would have repeated that demand over and over again as tensions rose, Sarlo said.

Police learned that just didn’t work, Sarlo said.

“You’re pointing a gun at somebody, they’re not hearing what you’re saying. They’re just staring at that gun,” Sarlo said.

The commands “become white noise,” he added. “‘Drop the knife. Drop the knife. Drop the knife. Drop the knife.’ What are we accomplishing at that point?”

To demonstrate, Camden police cued up their simulator again, only this time, Rodriguez wasn’t so reasonable. He drew his firearm as he came upon the man, got close to him, and in a sharp voice, demanded he surrender the blade.

“I’ll use this if I have to,” the man warned.

“If you use that knife, I will shoot you, sir,” Rodriguez responded sharply. “Drop the knife right now.”

The tense back-and-forth didn’t last long, with the man becoming increasingly agitated.

When he raised his knife and headed toward Rodriguez, the officer opened fire. One, two, three gunshots.

Another police-involved shooting.

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