The Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office hosted training on Thursday and Friday on two important law enforcement topics at Fairview United Methodist Church. Cherokee County deputies and police officers from Cedar Bluff and Centre participated in the eight hour training.

The first block of training entitled, “Understanding Bias in Law Enforcement and Society,” was led by Police Captain (Ret.) Coy Hunter. Captain Hunter recently retired from a Central Florida police department was recruited to come to Cherokee County by Chief Deputy Josh Summerford.

Hunter and Summerford were roommates during a three month intensive training program at the FBI National Academy in early 2020. The purpose of this block of instruction is to better help law enforcement understand and overcome potential biases.

The second part of training addressed de-escalation. De-escalation refers to techniques intended to prevent escalation of conflicts and provides officers with ideas on approaches in conflict resolution. The de-escalation block was led by Sheriff’s Office Investigator Michael Green, who recently became a certified instructor in the topic.

Sheriff Shaver said, “We believe it is important to continually train on current topics relating to law enforcement. Good training helps all of us provide better service to Cherokee County.”

Deputies and Corrections Officers have also been training in “Crisis Intervention Training (CIT)” hosted by the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office.

CIT is specifically designed to assist law enforcement in better dealing with individuals who are going through a crisis. CIT is made possible at no-cost through a grant from the U.S. Department of Justice.