🟠 The Challenge: Too Much Problem-Solving, Not Enough Active Listening

In high-stress law enforcement situations, officers are trained to take action—and fast. But that impulse to fix things immediately can sometimes work against them, especially when they’re dealing with someone in emotional distress.

“We tend to get into this mindset of just pure problem-solving because we’re going from call to call to call, and that’s our job, right? Solve all the problems, move onto the next one. But I think that’s the most counterproductive thing we’re doing out there when it comes to dealing with people in crisis and truly using active listening skills because we’re rushing through things. We’re just trying to establish our probable cause, or we’re trying to establish what it is that we’re going to do to solve this problem instead of sitting with the people and listening to the people. Sometimes that’s all it takes; there isn’t really a problem-problem. It’s just that people need to have the opportunity to express themselves and chat.”
— Megan Ross (CIT Coordinator, Deputy, and Negotiator)

CIT training covers a wide range of mental health-related information and response tactics, but the CIT coordinators wanted to take it one step further and provide hands-on instruction on how to listen—and how to use listening as a tactical tool.

🟢 The Solution: Energy, Practice, and Real-World Relevance

After Megan and Jessi met at a conference in Omaha (despite living in adjacent counties!), Jessi was brought in to teach a recurring 2-hour block focused on active listening, motivational interviewing, and suicide prevention, with active listening as the cornerstone.

The session was placed at the end of the day in the middle of the week of CIT, yet it consistently keeps officers engaged and participating.

“The energy that Jessi brings is a game-changer. At the end of the day, they’re still able to be engaged and enthusiastic about learning about wellness and ways to make sure that we’re helping ourselves and other people. It’s so beneficial that they’re still on board, they’re still listening, and they’re taking away good content.”
— Megan Ross

Rather than presenting a lecture, Jessi’s training uses interactive practice, in-the-weeds discussion, and tools that apply in a broad variety of situations.

🔵 The Impact: Officer Engagement and System-Wide Implications

While KCSO doesn’t track outcomes for individual blocks of CIT, what’s clear is this: good active listening has the ability to decrease uses of force and improve officer safety.

“If we’re practicing and putting all these skills into play, then we’re going to have the positive outcomes where we’re able to influence the behaviors of people and not have to use force. At the end of the day, let’s be real—that should be our goal, right?”
— Megan Ross

At a time when public trust, internal morale, and mental health outcomes are all under pressure for the law enforcement community, this training gives officers something that makes a difference right away: the ability to communicate with people in crisis, and to do so independently.

Many law enforcement officers have a tendency to call for a negotiator or mental health professional when high-level active listening is needed, but Megan’s goal with CIT is to empower patrol deputies to deploy those skills themselves.

“In my agency, sometimes they like to hit that easy button and call the negotiators to come do [active listening] for them. My question to them is always like, ‘Well, have you actually tried to have the conversation and talk with this person?’ I want to empower, educate, and hopefully get officers to be more comfortable with trying to do these things themselves.”
— Megan Ross

🟣 What This Means for Other Organizations

Active listening isn’t just for crisis negotiators or mental health professionals. It’s for anyone in a high-pressure role who has to interact with people on their worst days.

“I would really just encourage any agency that active listening is a universal skill. It’s not just about citizens and the community—granted, that’s who we’re employed to help—but it’s also about our peers, our friends, and our family members. If we’re practicing good active listening, every relationship in our life is going to benefit from this. So why would we not want to?”
— Megan Ross

If your people are tasked with managing clients, community members, or peers under stress, the same skills that improve law enforcement outcomes can transform your organization, too.

✅ The Final Word

“I have a background in education—I used to teach—and I absolutely loved how engaging Jessi’s presentation was and the energy that she brought. I could tell that she was knowledgeable and she knew her stuff; I wasn’t really so worried about that part as much as I was like, ‘She is so good in front of this audience.’ Let’s be real, cops are challenging, and it can be very, very difficult to teach to this demographic of individuals, especially the ones that have been doing this for a while. I just knew from watching Jessi [in Omaha] she would be able to handle her own in front of our audience. She’s highly engaging and really does such a great job of classroom participation and interaction and bringing the points home. I was like, ‘I need to get her to teach for this program.’”
— Megan Ross