President Donald Trump signed an executive order to reform law enforcement, Tuesday. Some of Northern Nevada's agencies already do the main focal points of his order. It encourages police departments to collect and track excessive force complaints, offers incentives to update training certifications and employs mental health professionals to help with some nonviolent situations.

"At Reno PD, we've been doing that and it's actually called our Mobile Outreach Safety Team, for over a decade," Officer Travis Warren, Public Information Officer for the Reno Police Department (RPD) said.

Warren says when officers approach people during an incident or conflict, they want their first experience to be a positive one and keep the situation from escalating.

"We're helping people in some of the most difficult and trying times of their lives and we're not looking to make those situations any worse," Warren said. 

RPD and the Washoe County Sheriff's Office (WCSO) train for scenarios that may involve the deescalation of an incident. WCSO started training its deputies for those situations, several years ago. RPD has a Crisis Intervention Team. They are trained to recognize situations and resolve them.

"It trained all the deputies to recognize people that may have some underlying issues whether it's mental health, whether it's addiction and how to engage them, how to talk to them," Sheriff Darin Balaam, Washoe County said.

"Assess an individual, a situation that they're going into and figure out how they can work through some deescalation tactics in order to bring about a calmer environment so they can help individuals work through challenges," Warren said.

WCSO's deputies take situational awareness training every year. Balaam says it is expensive but necessary. It trains them on deadly force, deescalation techniques, and how to notice biases, racism and profiling.

"We're looking for all of the things that we've been talking about and that type of training, we need to do more of," Balaam said.

President Trump said he wants to reform policing in America but that it should not undermine the officers. Balaam says that is important because he wants his deputies to make good decisions to stay safe.

"There is a lot of men and women that are doing great things, every day, and right now they're a little worried," Balaam said. "I mean, 'If I touch a person, am I going to lose my job?' So we don't want to undermine that."

He says that kind of second-guessing could be the difference between life and death.

"I don't want to undermine where they're so hesitant, the next thing you know, when they should have drawn a weapon or they should have escalated at force, they don't and then they end up either getting hurt or killed," Balaam said.

RPD has already made some updates to its policies, in the wake of the George Floyd death in Minneapolis. Warren says it has been doing these things for years but now they are in writing.

"If an officer sees another officer using excessive force, we are required now by policy to intervene," Warren said.

Both say communication is one of the most critical elements of what they do. That could include deescalating a situation or community policing. That's why they say it is important for the community and the law enforcement agencies to come together and discuss issues relating to northern Nevada.

"What we've seen over the years is we're talking past each other, so we may all be talking but we weren't listening and I think what these incidents have truly made us do is sit down and listen to each other," Balaam said.

The president's order offers incentives for police to update their training certifications. In Nevada, those certifications go through the state so any changes would not be up to each agency. Balaam and Warren encourage residents to get to know their officers. One way to do that is through the Citizen's Police Academy.

"It gives our community members an opportunity to see a little bit about what we do, not just for the Reno Police Department but from a regional aspect," Warren said.

"Let's show you why we do certain things, let's get your input and then we can modify our policies," Balaam said.

Both agencies have officers who deal with issues related to homelessness and mental illness. Balaam says it is important to have a regional mental health wellness program for both the community and officers. He says officers often deal with a lot of things that affect their mental well-being.