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Perceptual Distortion

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Anatomy Of An Officer’s Defense In A High-Profile Shooting (Part 1)

Part 1 of a 2-part report Police Atty. Scott Wood was absorbed in his son’s high school football game that Friday night, so he missed the two calls to his cell phone until half time. Then he listened to the voice mails that hurled him into one of the nation’s most explosive officer-involved shootings. A...
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Force Science Institute Details Reasons For Delaying Interviews With OIS Survivors

As you know, the Force Science Institute in its Certification Course (visit www.forcescience.org for more details) and in public statements advocates that officers who have been involved in shootings or other high-intensity events should be allowed a recovery period of at least 48 hours before being interviewed in depth about the incident by IA or...
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New “Invisible Gorilla” Study Adds To Proof Of “Inattentional Blindness”

Additional evidence of the phenomenon known as inattentional blindness has emerged from a new study of sensory focus and memory, this time with a professional group other than cops. “At Force Science, we write and teach about inattentional blindness in a law enforcement context,” says Dr. Bill Lewinski, executive director of the Force Science Institute....
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What Force Science Still Teaches About BART Case, Despite Court Ruling

In the nation’s highest-profile case of weapons confusion, the California Court of Appeal has ruled that a jury verdict of involuntary manslaughter was reasonable and a two-year prison sentence was warranted for former officer Johannes Mehserle, who swore that he thought he was deploying his Taser when he actually drew his pistol and fatally shot...
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First Results From Ongoing Survey Of Officers Who Survive Wounds

The first small sample of “near-miss” reports about officers who survived potentially fatal injuries has been reviewed by the VALOR Project—with some surprises emerging. VALOR (Violence Against Law Officer Research) is the umbrella name for a variety of ongoing studies by Dr. Matt Sztajnkrycer, seeking to improve on-scene casualty care for wounded LEOs. Sztajnkrycer is...
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New Study: Anger Sets The Stage For Seeing Threats Where None Exist

If you are angry when you confront a suspect, are you more likely to mistake a cell phone or other nonthreatening object in his hand for a gun? Recent findings from university-based research suggest that indeed is the case. Through a series of time-pressured experiments, a behavioral science team at Northeastern University in Boston discovered,...
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Force Science Pinpoints Human Dynamics Of Police-On-Police Shootings (Part 2)

Part 2 of a 2-part series A Governor’s Task Force in New York recently issued a 147-page report on police-on-police shootings in which it emphasizes that “unconscious race bias” may be a compelling factor when out-of-uniform officers, working plainclothes or taking some law enforcement action off-duty, are mistaken for life-threatening criminals and are shot dead...
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Do Head Cameras Always See What You See In A Force Encounter?

News reports about the head camera currently being tested by selected law enforcement agencies may be raising false expectations regarding the device that could have serious repercussions in some use-of-force investigations, warns the Force Science Institute. The camera, manufactured by Taser International and a little larger than a Bluetooth earpiece, fits snuggly on an officer’s...
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Are Your “Gaze Control And Scan Pattern” Linked To Your Performance?

Do police officers who are highly adept at dealing with violent situations visually assess potentially threatening scenes in a different way than less skillful officers? Studies of the “eye movements and gaze control patterns” of professional vs. amateur athletes suggest that may be the case, and a unique research project just launched by the Force...
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Fear, Stress, And The Survival Personality

You wouldn’t expect a spin-off of National Geographic magazine to have much content related to officer survival, but the August issue of National Geographic Adventure delivers just that in a surprising 1-2 punch. First is an article about how sudden fear and stress affect perception and performance, which draws largely from studies of street officers...
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