What does it take to train today’s officers to face deadly force successfully? A panel of nearly a dozen experts spent almost 4 hours voicing opinions on that topic at the recent annual conference of the International Law Enforcement Educators & Trainers Assn. (ILEETA). But the bottom line was neatly capsulized in a matter of...Read More
The quality of commands officers issue tends to deteriorate drastically in potentially life-threatening confrontations, possibly leaving suspects confused about what they’re expected to do to comply, according to 2 new studies conducted under the auspices of the Force Science Research Center at Minnesota State University-Mankato. What these studies reveal is “more shocking than anything we...Read More
Part 2 of a 2-part series A foremost authority on police psychology, Dr. Alexis Artwohl, has designed a protocol checklist that can help assure that an investigation of an officer-involved shooting is fair, neutral and fact-finding in nature. Part 1 of this series [Force Science News Transmission, sent 4/1/06] explored the first dozen of her...Read More
Part 1 of a 2-part series Amid the myriad pressures that inevitably arise after an officer-involved shooting, how does a law enforcement agency assure that its investigation of the event is fair, neutral and fact-finding in nature? One protocol for reaching that goal was offered recently by a well-known National Advisory Board member of the...Read More
Do police officers really have to kill people when they shoot them? Couldn’t they be more humane and just aim for arms or legs? As we reported in a previous FSN [2/28/06], a New York state senator in pondering these questions decided there’s way too much needless death being inflicted by cops these days. So...Read More
A New York state senator has introduced legislation that he says would force police officers using deadly force to try to shoot violent suspects in the arms or legs to stop them. His proposed law also requires that officers stop firing at an attacker as soon as a threat is neutralized, or face felony charges...Read More
Special individuals capable of impartially resolving disputes and using force to maintain order when necessary help keep monkey communities from collapsing in chaos, just as LEOs do in human society, researchers are discovering. “It seems clear that among more highly developed animals, Nature considers policing to be an absolutely essential element in protecting a given...Read More
A comment by a plaintiff’s expert witness during the trial of a civil suit against a Rhode Island police department has led a private law enforcement training organization to conduct an informative survey regarding off-duty policies and practices. The witness was testifying in a case in which an armed off-duty officer intervened in an altercation,...Read More
The latest study of officers’ reactions during and after shootings has yielded some upbeat conclusions–and some surprises. The full report, “Police Responses to Officer-Involved Shootings,” is available in both Word and pdf formats at: https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/192286.pdf Under a federal grant, Klinger used questionnaires and personal interviews to explore the emotional, psychological and physical reactions of 80...Read More
You know it in your heart, so to speak. Scientists have confirmed it. Now they’re confirming it again: Job stress of the kind you may experience in police work can play hell with your cardiovascular health. But there may be a way for you to beat the odds. British researchers who tracked more than 10,300...Read More
