Improv for cops? This new training technique is no joke for some local officers

A small column of Delaware River Port Authority police officers, badges and holsters clipped to their belts, lined up facing the wall. Their mission: Play the game of telephone, starting with a sketch instead of whispered gossip.

“Just draw a sailboat with water underneath it,” the third man in the queue yelled after a colleague traced something on his back and he got it. An officer at the head of the line drew a perfect one on a pad. Other DRPA police seated around the room razzed them as cheaters.

“I didn’t say ‘No talking,’” said Nick Gillette, a Philadelphia improvisational actor who taught about 30 officers on a recent day.

Since March, the police who protect the four toll bridges and the PATCO rail line linking Pennsylvania and New Jersey have been learning elements of improv. Sure, it’s rare to see law enforcement professionals studying theater arts, but leaders of the bistate authority believe it will help mold quicker-thinking, more flexible and collaborative officers.

All training hones a police officer’s skills, but “the spontaneity of improv will enhance our adaptability in real-world scenarios,” DRPA Police Chief Edward Cobbs Jr. said. “We can’t control what we’re going to encounter. He added that more open communication would help enhance “transparency and accountability in the department.”

DRPA’s move comes at a time when policing has grown more complicated. So-called soft skills such as de-escalation and negotiation are more important than ever. And yet the public, including many people in disadvantaged areas, also demands protection from crime.

At its best, improv can help experienced officers move away from habits and standard operating procedures to see things afresh — as if they were rookies again, said Sgt. Patrick Dolly, who is in charge of the department’s training program.

“Imagine you respond the a disturbance at the train station on Broadway in Camden,” Dolly said. “There’s a huge crowd, people are videotaping you with their phones, yelling at you, cursing. You’re the one standing out. You are the weirdo, all alone, and you’ve got to assess and take control.”

After some time on the job “you don’t even realize you’re out there, you’re so used to the environment and mentality,” Dolly said. “Improv is like the first or second week over and over again.”

Gillette, the instructor, praised the officers for creativity to solve the sailboat puzzle by finding a loophole in the rules of engagement. In a later round of the drawing exercise, talking was prohibited, so another officer in the same group waved his shield in front of the others. The goal was to draw a DRPA badge.

“Improv is about using what you have to do what you can,” Gillette said.

Those weren’t the only bursts of cleverness.

In another exercise, groups of officers had to move as one like a school of fish, with the followers mirroring what the squad leader was doing. Constance Nicholson, a police officer in the K-9 unit, punched up “Irreplaceable” by Beyoncé on a smartphone to try to keep her group marching to a beat.

The move brought laughter, and derisive comments from some colleagues that the song was annoying and distracting.

“I had a direct order” to play the song, Nicholson said. “I’m not saying from whom.”

Authority CEO John T. Hanson began introducing improv a few years ago to agency executives and managers. He is a big believer in its power to improve communications and collaboration. Hanson was the impetus for getting the new training for the agency’s police officers, and Cobbs Jr. was enthusiastic.

» READ MORE: Improv theater training is helping a once-hidebound transit agency learn to work smarter. It’s a trend that’s catching on.

Some U.S. police departments sometimes hire professional actors to play parts in scenarios to work on de-escalation tactics, but Lt. John Santry, in charge of professional standards for the DRPA police, said he’s not aware of many law enforcement agencies teaching acting skills directly to officers in the same way Gillette does it.

“It’s pretty novel in policing,” Santry said.

Improvisational theater exercises have grown in popularity as a training tool in the business world over the last couple of decades. Actors often lecture at graduate business schools, from MIT’s Sloan School of Management in Cambridge, Mass., to Stanford’s MBA program in Palo Alto, Calif.

At the DRPA headquarters in Camden, police officers laughed and trash talked their colleagues (gently). Several said it was a rare moment because all the members of their unit are not together in person very often, as assignments are spread over a wide area. Many contacts are over the radio or backing each other up on calls.

“It gives everyone the opportunity to feel like they’re on an even playing field, instead of everyone looking on you as a supervisor. We’re learning together,” said Lt. Jessica Gabe, a watch commander with 14 years at the department.

If not completely out of mind, the hierarchical divide seemed muted during the class. Nobody was spared a little joking.

“When we’re at work we see a lot of bad stuff. I don’t want to do the Debbie Downer thing, but this training is upbeat, fun. There’s not anything bad or wrong,” said Police Officer Samantha Bennett, who has been working on the PATCO transit system. Plus, she said, “it’s like a little reunion. I haven’t seen some people in months and months.”