NJ – L.E.A.D.S. -L.E. Active De-escalation Strategies 3 Day – Instructor Training

Passaic County Sheriff Thomas Adamo NJ
Hosting
L.E.A.D.S. –Law Enforcement Active De-escalation Strategies
3 Day – Instructor Training
March 3 –5, 2026 0800 – 1630
Lt. Kevin F. Dillon (ret) – Presenter

It was both a pleasure and an honor to present our L.E.A.D.S.™ Law Enforcement Active De-escalation Strategies Instructor Training for the Passaic County Sheriff’s Office – Wayne NJ  from March 3 – 5, 2026. The program was extremely well received, with participants demonstrating exceptional enthusiasm, dedication, and professionalism throughout the three-day training course.  This is what the team had to say!

Please assess the quality of this presentation.
Comments

• The instructor was knowledgeable and effective, which made the presentation engaging in a great experience.
• I’m trying something new and very informative in backed by many different personal and relevant cases.
• Lt. Kevin Dillon (ret)was very professional, well knowledged and kept all students involved.
• Extremely engaging and exceptionally relevant in today’s society.
• Lieutenant Dillon was very effective instructor for this course. Highly knowledgeable, vast experience and clearly passionate about this course.
• Good presentation, knowledgeable instructor, presentation was a lot of information to take in over 3 days.
• Presenter was phenomenal presenter is phenomenal. Articulate, energetic, knowledgeable and passionate.
• Very animated presentation which kept me engaged the entire time.
• Wheelchair fantastic. Great class with all strategies are used daily just put a name to them all. Highly recommend this class for others.

 Please assess the instructors of this program. Lieutenant Kevin Dillon (Ret)
Comments

• The instructor used time well, spoke clearly and delivered a great presentation
• Very passionate with years of experience
• Lieutenant Kevin Dillon was awesome and very knowledgeable with a lot of information.
• Outstanding animated instructor.
• Instructor Lieutenant Kevin Dillon did an excellent job presenting the material. He provided the material in a visual and animated manner which helped me understand the concepts. His incorporation of real life experience also made the material much more interesting and easy to relate to.
• Dillon is a masterful in his knowledge of the subject.
• Lieutenant Dillon quickly caught the attention of officers in this class he kept the class engaged in taught in a way that all officers will retain the information.
• What kind of done was knowledgeable and engaging.
• Personable and very knowledgeable
• Lieutenant Dylan is extremely knowledgeable in this field and constantly gave real world applications.

 Please explain how this training will enable you to change or improve your present assignment.
Comments

I will immediately evaluate how our de-escalation efforts are tracked and will seek proper and efficient tracking.  Dep Chief of Police – 22 years’ experience

This training is going to help how my interactions with the public are addressed. It will help me utilize different techniques to maintain an open dialogue as well and put me in a better tactical position. Patrol  – 8 years’ experience

It will help me explain the escalation better with more information for my department. Traffic / Training division 19 years’ experience

 Working in a tactical situation, this training made me understand how the brain and body work under certain situations. I know how to better understand EDP’s and barricaded individuals.
 SWAT Team Leader – 25 years’ experience

 It was an accident the rest of my life all these components are very useful to pass along to our sworn staff it highlights different concepts that we can use to incorporate into our lesson plans and training  Patrol Sergeant / Training Unit  – 14 years’ experience

Engaging with the public is a paramount concern in every law enforcement agency. This class helped officers work with the public in an efficient cooperative way.
Chief of Police 24 years’ experience

Everything else exciting to bring X excited to bring this training back to my department to help my fellow officers with all human interactions we face daily.
Patrol  – 7 years’ experience

This will assist me in working with new recruits in deploying de escalation strategies before entering into caseloads. 
Training and recruitment -19 years’ experience

I have now better able to handle stress for encounters and document the exact processes that led to any specific outcomes.       Detective – six years’ experience

This course has provided me with the application of de-escalation strategies that I could present to my department.                     Lieutenant / Internal affairs 11 years’ experience.

We’ll be able to give scientific reasoning behind this course every officer will benefit from this and will put into the real world.       Patrol / Training Instructor – 18 years’ experience

 

Nationally Recognized Conflict Resolution & De-Escalation Certification

The Award winning L.E.A.D.S.™ Law Enforcement Active De-escalation Strategies program was developed in 2007, and has become one of the most trusted and widely adopted  de-escalation training systems used by law enforcement and corrections professionals across the United States. De-escalation classes are a dime a dozen, this course has been tested and proven by street and corrections officers over the past 18 years from Honolulu to Alaska!

Through a dynamic mix of lectures, demonstrations, role play, and scenario-based applications, students will learn to:

• Recognize and manage aggressive behaviors before they escalate.
• Employ positive communication and proven de-escalation techniques.
• Anger management and confrontation avoidance strategies.
• Emotional modulation when responding to highly emotional incidents.
• Discuss tactical responses when diffusion is ineffective or inappropriate.
• The “Switch” Moment – In high-conflict encounters, there is often a distinct moment when the subject’s behavior shifts from verbal resistance to active aggression. Recognizing this switch is a critical skill.
• Cognitive Lock – Officers can get “stuck” in a single tactic under stress, repeating the same ineffective commands instead of transitioning to a new approach.
• Articulation Matters – In litigation or review, you will not be judged solely on the fact you used force, but on whether you can clearly articulate why verbal tactics were no longer appropriate.
• Officers effectively de-escalate on a daily basis, however there is no evidence to validate. Officer learn to document, quantify and measure evidence to show patterns of success.
• Integrated Training – Strategies on how verbal, physical, and tactical options must be trained together, so the transition between them is seamless.

Graduates of this program become certified to teach L.E.A.D.S.™ Active De-escalation Strategies, empowering their agencies with evidence-based methods that reduce negative  encounters, improve officer safety, quantify conflict resolutions and strengthen community

ONLY $695.00

Reviewed and Approved by the Department of Justice

 

REGISTER HERE

LOCATION of TRAINING:
Passaic County Police Academy
214 Oldham Rd., Wayne, NJ 07470
Kyra Deegan  – Training Division
kdeegan@pcsheriff.org  / 973.225.7844

RECERT COURSE EVALUATISON AND FEEDBACK

Oakland County Sheriff’s Office – MI
Dec. 11 – 12, 2025

 Please assess the quality of this presentation.
100% of attending students rated this course at the highest level of 5 Excellent.
This is a great reminder for veteran officers because they‘ve more likely than been doing this. It’s a paramount course for new recruits. 

Great use of video and explanation of the thought process with basic easy to understand science, anatomy, and Physiology, backing up the training material. 

Lieutenant Dillon always does a great job of teaching and holding audiences attention. Videos were all good.

KD is always very well done. 

As always, Lt. Dillon is extremely professional and knowledgeable. Information is very relevant and up to date. 

The material was relevant and well put together. I found everything easy to follow and to understand. 

Great material. 

Based on research which backed up information. 

great curriculum, should be implemented into the Academy in department in services.

Excellent quality.

Great use of stories and anecdotes.

Always learn so much from you!

Kevin was engaging and personable. 

Very good presentation. I can see how three days would have helped. Lots of information. 

 KD was great at keeping the attention of the students. Very animated and had a ton of relatable stories

 Please assess the instructors of this program.

100% of students attending rated this course at the highest level of 5 Excellent.

Kevin is passionate about the topics he instructs. 

KD does an awesome job engaging class, is energetic and transfers to knowledge always enthusiastic and knowledgeable on the topics he is presenting. 

Always the best training with KD. 

The instructor was knowledgeable, enthusiastic, and had great real-life stories 

Kevin is the best 

As always, great instructor 

knowledgeable. Presented the material great. Good mix of stories and material 

One of the best instructors I have ever had 

Very engaging. Nose material very well. No reading off PowerPoint. 

 KD is a true professional in very knowledgeable on this topic. 

Please explain how this training will enable you to change or improve your present assignment.
100% of attending students rated this course at the highest level of 5 Excellent.

 Remind me to talk to the trainees I have with me while I’m their FTO.

Helps explain the reasons behind the officers response to resistance training / incidents.

Help when I do response to resistance forms,  and training other how to speak to subjects for body worn camera purposes. More info in reports.

Gave me tools to slow down and think during different high stress incidents.

Implement the de-escalation teaching. Teach deputies on additional techniques 

New de-escalation tactics to try while working as well as a better understanding of the human response to stress and fear. 

Help with communication skills. 

This will help us in conducting our in-service and help distribute the message of de-escalation tactics to our deputies. 

Reinforce my past practices of my style of policing. 

Always looking to increase knowledge and it was interesting to hear about the brain in some physiology. 

Will assist me with de-escalating deputies.

Learned some great ideas for interviewing and interrogating that I didn’t know before.

I will be able to better de-escalate situations. 

As the training Sergeant responsible for bringing leads to our agency. The information taught by Kevin is crucial. His ideas on what to teach and how to teach it are spot on. 

In addition to law enforcement we also teach civilians de-escalations, great for both. 

This has allowed me to hone in on my de-escalation skills and now I am able to teach it.