Chief Tom Poellot of the Cudahy Police Department in Wisconsin shares how conflict management training transformed outcomes for his officers, dispatch staff, and community — reducing complaints, improving satisfaction, and strengthening emotional safety.
How Conflict Management Training Reduced Complaints and Improved Officer Safety
“Hi, my name is Tom Poellot. I’m the Chief of Police in the Cudahy Police Department in Wisconsin. We chose Vistelar at the Cudahy Police Department because we wanted to give officers and all staff more tools to successfully resolve conflict, to have more positive outcomes. When we define positive outcomes, we look at increased satisfaction from the public and our partners. We also look at reduced complaints and less use of force in situations.
We wanted to give officers and all staff more tools to successfully resolve conflict, to have more positive outcomes.
Since implementing this training at the Cudahy Police Department, I’ve really seen two distinct positive outcomes. Number one, from the law enforcement side, this training to reduce complaints from citizens, increased satisfaction when working with police officers on the street, when officers are dealing with conflict situations.
The second is actually in our dispatch center. Since we’ve implemented this in dispatch, just the universal greeting when they answer the phone sets the context for a positive interaction with the caller. They’re able to engage in non-escalation of the phone call as well as de-escalation, if somebody’s already calling in and they’re amped up when they make the telephone call.
📊 Two distinct outcomes emerged: Reduced complaints from citizens during street-level encounters, and non-escalation techniques that start from the very first phone call in the dispatch centre.
I believe that this training is important for law enforcement across the country. I think I can sum it up by relaying the POLE acronym. It’s for physical safety of law enforcement staff on the street. It’s for organizational safety so that they’re not getting in trouble with policy violations or violations that involve the way they’re speaking with people.
Legally, I think training to reduce complaints keeps the organizations safe as well as the individual officers. Emotional safety, I think, is extremely important. I think that for a police officer to feel confident in the job and to portray that while he’s interacting with the public, and having the arrows in his quiver, so to speak, to engage in non-escalation and de-escalation in situations rather than having to resort to any type of physical use of force, if possible. I think that it provides an emotionally safe environment for police officers and other staff to work in.”
Having the arrows in his quiver, so to speak, to engage in non-escalation and de-escalation rather than having to resort to any type of physical use of force.
💡 The POLE framework at a glance: Physical safety — officer safety on the street. Organisational safety — avoiding policy violations through better communication. Legal safety — protecting officers and departments from complaints. Emotional safety — giving officers the confidence to de-escalate rather than default to force.
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This guide on conflict management and personal safety training is part of our ongoing work with police, law enforcement, schools, and public-sector organisations.