Officers get primer on use of force

Most people don’t know what it’s like to be in tense situations that law enforcement deals with on a regular basis. But Deputy Chief Kyle Sumpter does.

He’s seen officers make good decisions and bad decisions. So he put his experience together to give law enforcement officers the training to better protect the people they serve.

Sumpter gave an eight-hour training course on deadly force, de-escalation and resolving lethal situations Monday for local law enforcement at the Clearwater River Casino east of Lewiston. The lessons continue today.

Sumpter has more than 30 years of law enforcement experience, including in patrol, training coordination, crime detection, firearms instruction and SWAT work and command.

He was also on two seasons of “Top Shot,” a reality shooting competition show. He was brought to the area by Nez Perce Tribal Police Chief Mark Bensen.

Bensen worked with Sumpter for 25 years in Federal Way, Wash. His goal is to have tribal police training every year on topics important to law enforcement.

Bensen said Sumpter will give the same training both days to accommodate staffing and get “as many people as possible” to attend. Between the two days, 83 members from 14 agencies will attend.

Sumpter has been doing the training for 15 years, mostly in Washington, but has also taught in Oregon, Texas and Idaho.

“There’s always been positive feedback,” Sumpter said.

He decided to develop his own training after seeing law enforcement officers make “mistakes that are life-changing.”

Sumpter highlighted several incidents in which personnel injured or sometimes killed other officers because they didn’t follow training and safety.

He said officers can’t be expected to keep the community safe when there is a lack of safety from “within our house.” He said those situations don’t come from ignorance of the rules, but arrogance in regard to following the rules.

“Arrogance leads to complacency,” Sumpter said.

He also saw a lack of training in areas like active shooter situations.

“There didn’t seem to be education and training in those most precarious moments,” Sumpter said.

He told officers that many law enforcement agencies don’t do enough training in active shooter situations. He compared it to if someone were training to be a firefighter but had no training in how to fight fires.

Most of the training Sumpter does is in Washington, but he modified his message for sessions in Idaho. Although some state laws might change and the policing culture might change, the core values don’t.

“As things change, these principles tend to endure the changes,” Sumpter said. “The principles endure even as society has ways of various influence.”

Sumpter told those in attendance that law enforcement’s core function is to protect people from violence, which he defined as harm from other people.

For law enforcement, that means putting people in harm’s way, not preserving their own life.

He used the example of the school shooting in 2022 at Uvalde, Texas, showing video footage of officers in the building running away when the gunman was firing.

Sumpter said an officer’s job is to protect the innocent.

“You have to put yourself in harm’s way as a law enforcement officer,” Sumpter said. “Because I’m not the most important thing here.”

Sumpter went over numerous other principles, guidelines and law enforcement needs. He provided training free of cost because it was a mutual aid request beween agencies.

“Because I believe in that much,” he said.

Sumpter shared an example of wanting to use information from another session and finding out it would cost money. That was another reason he wanted to do his own training — to make it more accessible.

“I don’t own these principles,” he said. “We collectively own these principles and I think we should freely share them, especially because these are life-saving principles,” he said.

Brewster may be contacted at kbrewster@lmtribune.com or at (208) 848-2297.