Topics will include reaction times, perceptual distortions, narrowed vision, language limitations, and memory gaps–factors that investigators need to be aware of and fully understand, especially in controversial or puzzling cases. Students will also learn the need to be able to articulate in reports and testimony how these factors may have influenced an event, to give as complete a picture as possible of what happened. And they need to understand how the traumatized brain functions so they can adapt their interviewing techniques to recover a maximum amount of valid material from the participants.

Students will come away with an enhanced understanding of the protocol for investigating and interviewing that will best assure a fair, balanced, impartial, and comprehensive explanation of the encounter in question.

It is not an investigator’s job to determine if an officer’s behavior, let’s say, was right or wrong in a use of force situation. But it is the investigator’s job to clearly and objectively present all the potentially relevant facts to the person or person(s) responsible for that decision. Without this training, it is highly likely that pivotal truths related to human performance will be misinterpreted or missed entirely in high-profile cases where the stakes are life-changing.

An important part of the Force Science Certification process is interactive participation with students. At registration, class participants will receive a large course binder that in addition to materials related to each block of instruction, will include detailed evidentiary information related to an actual officer-involved shooting case students will “investigate.”

Each night immediately following class, an instructor will  facilitate an intensive group discussion exercise in the classroom with the entire student body centered on applying the information taught each day to that case.  Compelling questions will be posed related to the case in a Socratic, “guided discovery” fashion designed to help students tap into their newly acquired knowledge and apply it in a practical, real-world fashion likely to be mirrored in their own professional activities. This exercise will also allow the instructor to further elaborate on a number of the topics covered that day in class.

The class is designed to be a highly interactive experience to allow students to make practical applications of what they’ve learned, just as they would in a real investigative setting.

A closed book written test will be distributed on the afternoon of the fourth day. This test consists of a compilation of questions, generated by each instructor, that are designed to confirm your level of understanding and retention of the information presented throughout the week.