Why Every Cop Needs to Understand the Rhetorical Continuum

Verbal De-escalation training provides public safety professionals with time-tested communication skills proven to help de-escalate volatile situations, safeguard fellow officers’ well-being, and significantly enhance the agency's professional image. At the heart of verbal de-escalation is the officer’s ability to recognize the utility of various kinds of verbal appeals, based on the totality of circumstances that they confront. 

Chief Dolan’s Rhetorical Continuum provides public safety personnel with a range of response options that are applied to the situation in proportion to the citizen’s level of verbal resistance. Grounded in the principles of persuasion articulated by the Greek philosopher Aristotle in 335 B.C., the Rhetorical Continuum walks officers through the use of the three fundamental methods of strategic verbal persuasion.

In this two hour webinar, Chief Harry P. Dolan (ret.) will walk attendees through these 3 methods of persuasion—Ethos (the ethical appeal), Logos (the logical appeal) and Pathos (the emotional appeal)—to employ in response to the level of verbal resistance that they encounter in the field. By using the techniques contained in this continuum, officers will be equipped with the verbal skills to exhaust all reasonable verbal de-escalation options in the field before taking action—whether in the form of physical restraint or disengagement.