Some might think that the difference between one law enforcement agency and another could be the badge the wear, the weapons they carry or the vehicles they drive. That said, perhaps the biggest difference between police departments is the level of training, and how it should be continually evolving.
And in the wake of a tragic police shooting in eastern Idaho that left a young man with autism dead, there’s a growing debate over how things might have ended differently. In a March 2025 interview with Boise State Public Radio, Nicole McKay, director of the City of Boise’s Office of Police Accountability spoke specifically about scenarios where police are face to face with an individual in mental crisis.
“We know that if things slow down, we have a greater chance for a positive outcome,” said McKay.
And in a more recent conversation with Morning Edition host George Prentice, Boise Police Chief Christopher Dennison echoed the Boise Police Department's emphasis on “slowing things down.”
“We want to contain and isolate somebody and then move to communication and negotiation … to really slow it down and utilize de-escalation techniques,” said Dennison. “We’re continually evaluating less lethal systems.”
In the same conversation, Prentice also asked the BPD Chief about a recent NPR report revealing that the federal government had added hundreds of thousands of immigration holds into a national databased used by local police.
“That’s not a criminal warrant; it’s an administrative warrant,” said Dennison. “We can’t serve those warrants. We can’t take somebody into custody and book them into jail based on that warrant.”
Listen to the full Morning Edition conversation, or read the transcript here:
PRENTICE: It's Morning Edition. Good morning, I'm George Prentice. We are fortunate to have some time with Boise chief of police, Christopher Dennison, this morning. Chief Dennison, good morning to you.
DENNISON: Good morning sir. How are you?
PRENTICE: I'm well. And thank you for your time. We were interested in a story that surfaced on this broadcast from NPR recently, where we learned that the federal government has added hundreds of thousands of immigration arrest warrants to to a national database used by local police. Most, most of us laypersons. We don't know what the NCIC is, but I'm guessing that you and your colleagues reference that all the time. But it's our understanding that these now include a heck of a lot more immigration holds.
MEDIA CLIPS: Local cops say they have seen the change on their computers. These warrants are now showing up in our database.
PRENTICE: What do you do about these? Because they're technically not a criminal warrant.
DENNISON: Yeah, so you're right. They're not a criminal warrant. It's an administrative warrant that ICE puts in. We don't have the authority under law to serve those warrants and enforce those warrants because they're not criminal. So if we do contact somebody and say we do a records check, whether it's a consensual contact at that convenience store at 2 a.m. or even on a traffic stop, we can't serve those warrants. We can't take somebody into custody and book them into jail based on that warrant. so it really doesn't impact BPD operations at all.
PRENTICE: Good to know because what we heard was, well, some local agencies and other cities around the country and even some county sheriff's offices got entangled with this. And they even got threatened with some suits. So it's our understanding that these aren't signed by a judge. Is is that the technical reason these are technically not warrants? Is that the technical reason?
DENNISON: That's correct. It's an administrative warrant that's issued by ICE. Yeah. So for it to be a criminal warrant, it would have to have some level of judicial review and a judge sign off on it.
PRENTICE: Good to know. I have to ask about a high profile incident of late that I know a lot of people are talking about. I think most people have heard by now of a police shooting in eastern Idaho. Details are still being investigated. I don't want to litigate that here, but I always want to take an opportunity to talk about training. In our conversations with you and with Nicole McKay over at the Office of Police Accountability. We hear about revised training to slow things down. Can you talk a little bit about that as far as how do we slow things down?
DENNISON: Yeah. So it is something we build into our training. Um, BPD and before I got here. So I really have to give credit to the BPD team. Um, even before I got here was really, um, on the cutting edge of this. And it is using scenario based training so that when officers, you know, respond to a scene, they've actually hopefully practiced it multiple times in training, that's the goal we're getting to and looking at ways to create for us time, distance shielding between a suspect and an officer, specifically when we're looking at edged and blunt weapon defense for officers. Firearms are a completely different component when we look at training as far as that goes. But what we what we want to be able to do is create that time distance shielding for officers and where we can separate potential victims away from any suspects. So we look at it as we want to contain and isolate somebody and then move to a communication, negotiation, something like that, to really slow it down and try to utilize, uh, de-escalation techniques that way. And then one of the other things that we're doing with BPD is we're continually evaluating, evaluating less lethal systems that we can improve upon.
So, you know, currently our officers have we have 40 millimeter impact launchers. They're it's a foam baton round to use pain as a compliance, but it creates that time and distance for us to try to get compliance if somebody's not willing to put the weapon down. All of our officers in the field currently carry tasers. We're looking at hopefully upgrading from our current Taser seven system to the Taser ten system, which will give us even further standoff range with the Taser. Utilization of pepper ball systems. Um, these are all less lethal systems that we can use to gain compliance, to try to get somebody into custody without using deadly force. And then we reinforce the concepts of communication, identifying one person to speak and give clear, concise direction and commands. So those are things we continually evaluate. And then we also evaluate after incidents occur where we use force whether it's deadly force or not. We review those incidents to determine is there things we can glean from that to enhance our training and make us even more effective?
PRENTICE: Good to know. We've been talking more often about what are known as hidden disabilities too, right? Uh, you know, epilepsy and Multiple Sclerosis, things like that. Um, that has to be part of the training as well, right?
DENNISON: It is. And it's something that officers are taught that we talk about pretty much from day one. And it it does become difficult, right, where officers are showing up to scene. They have limited information, sometimes very limited information. And you're trying to make decisions based on somebody's actions. So those can be difficult. But we do provide training to officers to recognize various disabilities that could display levels of aggression that may not actually be there. Um, but sometimes in the moments, those are very difficult things for an officer, for anybody to assess with very poor information.
PRENTICE: Because someone could have an episode.
DENNISON: And just because somebody is suffering from a mental illness or another issue doesn't make them any less dangerous. It's just something we want to make officers cognizant of the best we can through training. And that's where slowing things down, if we're able to do so, is effective in trying to gain additional information to get a true understanding of what's occurring.
PRENTICE: The last conversation I had with Nicole McKay was that training is evolving.
DENNISON: We constantly are looking at incidents from across the country, and sometimes in other countries, looking at what the response was, um, was it effective and then looking at what other places are doing, whether it's, you know, other police departments in the United States or even outside the United States, and seeing if those practices can be adapted here if they're successful, um, and effective. So we're constantly trying to evaluate better ways to do things. Um, the goal of any police interaction is we want to take somebody into custody. If we have to make an arrest, take somebody into custody safely. Um, the application of deadly force is the absolute last resort that we ever want to go to.
PRENTICE: I took a lot of notes here this morning, but time distancing, I guess, is my new phrase of the week. Chief, thank you so very much. Chief Christopher Dennison, thank you and your colleagues for what you do every day. And thanks for giving me some time this morning.
DENNISON: Absolutely, George. It's good talking to you.
Find reporter George Prentice @georgepren
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