Updated: April 27, 2026, at 11:59 a.m.

The screen flashed an image of a man in a mental health crisis holding a knife, threatening to hurt himself and others, as a student stood facing GW Police Department’s de-escalation and firearms training simulator.

Devin Tennant, a member of the Black Student Union participating in the demonstration, had called for backup to deal with the armed man. 

“Do you mind putting the knife down for me?” Tennant said. 

The man did not put the knife down. But Captain Cheryl Crawley insisted Tennant continue communicating with the man rather than draw a weapon. The interaction came as GWPD officers walked six students, including Student Government Association President Ethan Lynne, Tennant and a Hatchet editor, through how GWPD trains its officers to de-escalate potentially violent situations at GWPD’s headquarters in the basement of Rome Hall Tuesday. 

“As chief said, our biggest weapon is our voices,” Crawley said. 

Four officers, led by Chief Victor Brito, demonstrated and led students through various scenarios as a part of GWPD’s monthly de-escalation training using the department’s roughly $50,000 virtual training simulator, which they also use for firearms training. But no officers drew weapons Tuesday, as Brito said officers should only do so as a “last resort” as the department emphasizes teaching officers how to resolve situations through communication.

“If you can’t communicate in our profession, you’re not going to be successful and have successful outcomes, nor are you going to build relationships,” Brito said. 

Brito — who’s nearing the end of his first academic year as the head of the University’s embattled police department — said the simulator serves as part of the trove of preparations the department has on hand for training their armed officers, on top of mental health and implicit bias discussions. As the department attempts to rebuild community trust and transparency following severe safety violations during the initial arming of officers, Brito said the community should feel safe due to the robust training he is giving armed officers. 

Brito took the helm of the department in August 2025, after former Chief James Tate resigned in the wake of The Hatchet’s September 2024 investigation into the department’s gun safety failures, including the force’s top two officers carrying unregistered firearms. The investigation revealed the University’s police force failed to properly train its officers to use their firearms, prompting officials to launch a third-party investigation into the department’s controversial arming rollout that ended in a report full of recommendations for GWPD.

The third-party investigation recommended the department bolster both arms safety and de-escalation training after former officers reported lapses under Tate. 

Brito said in an interview with The Hatchet after the demonstration the department is still in the process of hiring a training officer — one of the third-party report’s recommendations — but declined to provide a timeline for doing so. He added that the training program has remained “solid” and the department holds its officers to training standards “above and beyond” what the law requires. 

“We have monthly meetings regarding all of our compliance right now,” Brito said. “We have six armed officers. Our protocols are very solid, they’re compliant and above what’s required by law.”

The simulator, piloted by one of GWPD’s two instructors — Captain Ian Greenlee or Lieutenant Derek Hemphill — is fairly interactive and has a flurry of differing “playlists” that allows the instructor to direct the simulation to a more or less hostile situation for the trainee.

“We go through the scenarios preemptively so we get an idea of which options cause what branching,” Greenlee said. “Once we get into playing out the scenarios, where do we want to steer it? Where do we feel we feel we’re going to best help the training?”

Brito said in an October interview with The Hatchet he wanted to share the department’s training methods with the GW community by potentially opening up the training sessions to the public, adding that Greenlee was working with a professor in the peace studies department to bolster the department’s deescalation training.

At an April 2024 demonstration given to The Hatchet, Tate showed how officers use the simulator to practice discharging their firearms, including both as target practice and in real-world scenarios, like Tennant’s encounter with a knife-wielding individual experiencing a mental health crisis.

Greenlee said the department purchased the simulator “primarily” for arms training, but the system contains several scenarios where officers can “win” — or get the desired outcome — without using force, causing the department to use it for de-escalation trainings as well. 

“We are very conscious of the fact that firearms are really, truly the last resort we want to go towards when dealing with somebody,” Greenlee said. “First and foremost you want to use your communication skills.”

Hemphill then demonstrated the simulator’s typical use with an encounter with an unhoused individual living near a business’s loading dock.

After hearing a “call” from “dispatch” explaining the situation to Hemphill, the simulator projected a brief introductory video before Hemphill could begin interacting with the unhoused individual.

“I’m Lieutenant Hemphill with GWPD, I got called over because they wanted you removed from the loading dock,” Hemphill said to the unhoused man in the simulation. “Is there anything I can do to help you get your stuff moved or help you come out of this space?”

The simulation continued to play out responses from the unhoused individual, including “This is my home” and “I’ll lose everything” as Hemphill attempted to get the individual to vacate the loading dock. After a few rounds of back and forth communication, Hemphill managed to get the individual to leave without the use of force. 

“Okay, that’s fair, I’ll leave as soon as my stuff is packed,” the unhoused individual said.

Brito said the department only has six officers armed — well below the department’s goal of 22 armed officers under the 2023 plan — and doesn’t have a timeline for when the department will arm additional officers. University spokesperson Julia Garbitt confirmed in March seven additional officers — including Brito — completed the University’s arming training and would be armed once licensed, however, only six armed officers are licensed and can go on patrol, and Brito said at a Campus Planning Advisory Committee meeting earlier this month the department is “almost” fully staffed.

“So as we hire more supervisors, they’ll go through the requisite training, and the supervisors that I’ve hired have exceptional credentials in law enforcement,” Brito said.

Brito said since being at the department, no students, staff or faculty members have approached him vocalizing worries about the arming rollout, adding that he has been “exceptionally engaged” with the community. In his first year, Brito has attended an SGA meeting, Kogan Plaza tabling events and the annual GW bonfire in University Yard.

The Board of Trustees’ April 2023 decision to arm the police force was met with student protests, dissenting letters from faculty, criticism of the lack of community input from staff and faculty demands to see the data that backed their decision. The third party investigation revealed officials’ disregard for community feedback when making the decision.

“Whether it be arming, whether it be policing in general, whether it be current events or anything to do with law enforcement, our goal is to always have an honest conversation about what is on your mind, what’s your thoughts on our topic and let us share our views also and have an honest dialogue,” Brito said. 

Brito said conversations about opening up trainings to the public, including Tuesday’s demonstration given to SGA officials, BSU members and The Hatchet, came about “naturally” out of his want to “humanize” the University’s police officers.

“I want our community to know, from our students, our faculty, our staff and our overarching community — people live near here — is I want them to know that we’re human beings and we care and we’re empathetic, and we exercise compassion, and we want to help people,” Brito said.

This post was updated to correct the following:

An earlier version of this post incorrectly spelled Devin Tennant’s name. We regret this error.