Training officers to serve an entire community means training them to recognize that not every person communicates, reacts, or processes stress the same way. That’s a responsibility I take seriously, and it’s exactly why I made sure our department adopted Blue Envelope recognition training as part of our standard curriculum.
Before we implemented this training, I heard stories, some from other departments, some from families in our own community, about traffic stops that went sideways not because anyone did anything wrong, but because an officer misread silence, avoided eye contact, or a delayed response as defiance instead of what it actually was: a person overwhelmed by sensory input and unable to respond the way the situation demanded. Those misunderstandings have led to outcomes none of us want, and most of them were preventable.
Now, every officer in our department is trained to recognize the Blue Envelope on sight, to understand what it communicates, and to adjust their approach immediately. Slow down. Lower your voice. Give the person time. Don’t mistake a processing delay for resistance. It sounds simple, but it requires officers to unlearn some default instincts that policing has relied on for a long time.
What I appreciate most about this program is that it doesn’t ask officers to do something complicated. It asks us to read a card and respond with patience. That’s a small ask with a significant payoff, both for community trust and for officer safety, because de-escalation starts with accurate information, not guesswork.
I’d encourage every department in this state to bring this training in-house. It costs us very little in time, and it gives our officers a tool that makes every relevant stop safer and calmer for everyone at the window, on both sides of it.
