Day: June 11, 2025

One of the DCJS training slides warns that excited delirium sufferers can die seemingly spontaneously after police restrain them. “[First] symptom of the impending death is the death,” the slide reads. Victims are “virtually never successfully resuscitated.”

The materials play into tropes that critics say make excited delirium not only a debunked theory, but a dangerous one. For one, they say that its reputation for endowing sufferers with extraordinary physical abilities can fuel more aggressive police responses. Critics also point out that police have used excited delirium as a way to avoid faulting cops for deaths in police custody.

“Excited delirium has no foundation in legitimate medical science and has been repeatedly rejected by leading authorities,” Campaign Zero, which uncovered the training documents, said in a statement. “The term continues to endanger lives, misrepresent the causes of death, and erode public trust.”