BLEND Course- Body Language- Emotions- Negotiations- Deceptions
Course Summary-The BLEND Course provides beginner, intermediate, and advanced body language training designed specifically for law enforcement interactions, interviews, and investigations. Created by former Army counterintelligence federal agent and warrant officer with 22+ years of experience. Topics include elements of discomfort, rapport and baseline, deception, elicitation, de-escalation, mirroring, space invasion, and atmospherics depending on course selection. This course will be taught in person and participants will receive certification of completion.
Date and Location: Click here to schedule.
Cost: Beginner (1-day) – $150/person, Intermediate (2-day) – $275/person, Advanced (3-day) – $350/person. Organizations will receive 2 free seats for every 10 paid seats..
Minimum 7 paid seats within Utah and 15 elsewhere to conduct a course.
BLEND I – Beginner 1 day
This course is for newer officers. They may be in situations in which they need to quickly assess potential threatening, nervous, or deceptive behavior, but lack the experience to make those decisions.
The basic course provides shortcuts to categorizing common body language and nonverbal indicators in order to speed read whether someone may be willing to inflict harm or are more likely to be conducting illicit activity. By the end, new officers will be able to quickly identify signals of comfort vs discomfort and whether uncomfortable body language indicates a plan to hide, escape, ease tension, or defend. They will also identify common phrases used in deception.
Instruction will be provided, practical exercises will be performed, and certification will occur upon successful completion of the end of class test.
Participants will receive a certification which may be presented to supervisors and recognized within the state. Certification does not expire. There are no prerequisites, but units should use discretion based on how an officer will be utilized post certification.
Course topics (See below for descriptions of each topic)
Comfort vs Discomfort / Threats 1 hr
Take HEED 2 hr
Emotions and Microexpressions 1 hr
Break for lunch 1 hr
Observation assignment during lunch to look for ROC and HEED indicators.
Rapport and Baseline 1 hr
Deception Detection 1 hr
PE and test 1 hr
BLEND II – Intermediate 2 day
This course is for officers who have moderate experience and may be entering into more involved interviewing and investigations. They may be in situations in which they need to determine when to either build rapport or assert control of a situation to more effectively gather information.
The intermediate course provides all the classes from BLEND I but goes more in depth in identifying body language indicators and also includes techniques on building trust, the dynamics of an interview room, and proper use of space to influence.
Instruction will be provided, practical exercises will be performed, and certification will occur upon successful completion of the end of class test.
Participants will receive a certification which may be presented to supervisors and recognized within the state. Certification does not expire. There are no prerequisites. Bodysights will maintain a record of certified officers.
Day 1
Comfort vs Discomfort / Threats 1 hr
ROC and HEED 4 hr
Break for Lunch 1 hr
Observation assignment during lunch
Emotions and Microexpressions 1 hr
Practical Exercise 1 hr
Day 2
Deception Detection 1 hr
Knowing your audience 1 hr
Rapport and Baseline 1 hr
Setting up atmospherics 1 hr
Lunch 1 hr
Research assignment
Mirroring 1hr
Space invasion 1 hr
PE and test 1 hr
BLEND III – Advanced 3 day
This course is for officers who spend or are preparing to spend a majority of their time conducting in- depth investigations, working undercover, or conducting long interviews. They already have a strong foundation observing human activity and would like to improve their overall persuasion and influence skills.
The advanced course provides all the classes from BLEND II and adds subtle information gathering techniques that go beyond just asking questions interrogation style as well as a dialogue on de-escalation techniques.
Instruction will be provided, practical exercises will be performed, and certification will occur upon successful completion of the end of class test.
Participants will receive a certification which may be presented to supervisors and recognized within the state. Certification does not expire. There are no prerequisites, but units should use discretion based on how an officer will be utilized post certification. Bodysights will maintain a record of certified officers.
Day 1
Comfort vs Discomfort / Threats 1 hr
ROC and HEED 4 hr
Break for Lunch 1 hr
Observation assignment during lunch
Emotions and Microexpressions 1 hr
Practical Exercise 1 hr
Day 2
Knowing your audience 1 hr
Rapport and Baseline 1 hr
Elicitation 2 hr
Break for lunch 1 hr
Elicitation 2 hr
PE 1 hr
Day 3
Deception Detection 1 hr
Setting up atmospherics 1 hr
Mirroring 1 hr
Space invasion 1 hr
Break for lunch 1 hr
De-escalation 2 hr
Understanding techniques to bring a person’s emotions down when tension is high.
PE and test 1 hr
Topic descriptions
Comfort vs Discomfort / Threats Covers human nature and why some physiological responses occur.
Take HEED Shortcut way to identify potentially threatening behavior and what it most likely indicates.
Emotions and Microexpressions We discuss the facial displays that show emotions that are universally recognized among humans.
Rapport and Baseline To accurately identify if someone is acting suspicious, it is important to understand how they normally act when nothing is wrong and when they deviate from their norm. We talk about setting an environment to observe calm behavior and build rapport.
Deception Detection We cover other nonverbal indicators that most often accompany uncomfortable body language which increase the probability of deceptive behavior.
Knowing your audience Understanding likes and dislikes, rationale for decisions made, and past behavior will give you the best insight for how to talk to someone using the greatest possible amount of influence.
Setting up atmospherics The locations in which you conduct interviews and how you use them or how items are placed largely determine a person’s state of mind and setting it up correctly helps to maintain the right advantage.
Mirroring One of the best ways to build rapport is understanding that people like people who are like them. We discuss effective and subtle mirroring techniques to make others think you are on the same page, and you should be trusted.
Space invasion Sometimes, moving into someone’s space puts them on the defensive and sometimes it can take control of a situation. We discuss when to use space invasion and when to avoid it.
Elicitation Elicitation is a form of gathering information in such a way that the person offering the information believes it is their idea. We will learn the method to do this and practice it.
De-escalation Understanding techniques to de-escalate when tension is high.