Skokie police responded to reports of a domestic dispute involving an armed man with a knife Sept. 15, on the 9200 block of Lorel Avenue, using de-escalation techniques and “less lethal” bullets to bring the situation under control, according to a police department news release.
Officers arrived on the scene at approximately 8:41 p.m. Tuesday, locating an adult male “armed with a butcher knife” in front of his residence, police said.
After securing the perimeter, police used verbal communication methods to calm the armed man, who verbally threatened to kill Skokie police while appearing to be experiencing a mental health crisis, according to the news release.
Crisis Intervention Trained (CIT) staff and Tactical Intervention Unit (TIU) members were called to the scene to help de-escalate the situation, Sgt. Brandi Shelton said, and equipped with a “ballistic shield” and “less-lethal 40mm single-shot launchers as a precautionary measure.”
While police were attempting to de-escalate the situation, bystanders came to the area to observe the incident, and at approximately 9:27 p.m., the armed man began to walk towards onlookers, leading police to deploy the single-shot launchers, according to the news release.
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Shelton described the “less-lethal” bullets as being composed of rubber rounds designed to not puncture the skin but help in disarming a physical threat.
Skokie police then secured the man and Skokie fire department personnel took him to a hospital via ambulance for further evaluation and treatment of non-life-threatening injuries.
Skokie police said the preliminary investigation indicates the incident was “domestic-related” and is not a threat to the public.
No criminal charges will be brought at this time, Shelton confirmed.
Dr. Sharon Fairley, professor from practice at the University of Chicago Law School, said most use of force policies at police agencies today allow officers to use such less lethal tactics. She noted, however, there is some controversy around some of the tactics — which include hands-on holds, energy-emitting devices and chemical sprays as well as projectiles — because they can be deadly.
Using de-escalation techniques and time are good first approaches before using less lethal tactics, said Fairley, who emphasized she had no firsthand knowledge of the situation and was speaking about police approaches in general.
“They used CIT and de-escalation techniques before the use of force. It sounds like they did what they were supposed to do,” Fairley observed, again emphasizing she was not familiar with the particulars of the situation.
Recent research has framed the question of whether to use less lethal force against a person in terms of, “Does the person show intent to do harm, do they have the ability to do harm, and do they have the opportunity to do harm,” she said.
“The opportunity (for the person with the knife) to do harm was created when bystanders and police got close to the person,” she observed.
She credited the University of South Carolina’s Seth Stoughton with popularizing that method of analyzing a fraught situation.
There is still some controversy today over whether police should use less lethal tactics that simply cause a person pain, she said. Usually, police are trying to do two things, overcome resistance and mitigate a threat, she noted, and simply causing a person pain might not be effective at either.
“There isn’t a consensus out there on these things, though,” she said.