Exploring Police Use of Force Decision-Making Processes and Impairments Using a Naturalistic Decision-Making Approach

Abstract

As part of their duties, police regularly engage with citizens, which can result in the use of force. While we know how often and under what circumstances officers use force, little is known about officers' decision-making processes that lead to force. The study took a naturalistic decision-making approach to analyze debrief sessions between 91 recruits and their trainers after partaking in a use-of-force assessment scenario. Results show recruit's decision making was more aligned with an intuitive style rather than an analytical style. Recruits reported experiencing perceptual, cognitive, and physiological impairments that influenced the way they assessed the situation and affected their ability to successfully execute force techniques. The findings provide valuable insights into the theoretical knowledge around police decision making and how officers are making use-offorce decisions in the field. This has real-world implications for training/education and could help reduce the effects of decision-making impairments.

A machine learning analysis of serious misconduct among Australian police

“…While there is noteworthy research among Australian policing jurisdictions, data is typically sourced externally to policing agencies (Goodman-Delahunty 2014; Crehan 2019), utilising qualitative methodologies (Hine et al 2018), or small samples (People 2008;People et al 2010;Gorta 2009). While these studies provide insight into the misconduct environment, there is a paucity of empirical analysis of substantial police misconduct datasets.…”

“…While there are legitimate instances of use of force in the policing environment, this is a highly visible misconduct type which has implications for community safety, police legitimacy and community consent (Borilla 2015). In an Australian context, there is noteworthy research into improper use of force (Hine et al 2018;McCarthy et al 2018;Baker 2009), however this research has not identified improper use of force as a predictor of serious misconduct, and has not been able to locate it among other features of misconduct. Subsequently, this finding is important as it identifies use of force as a noteworthy predictor.…”

Police Perfection: Examining the Effect of Trait Maximization on Police Decision-Making

“…In a study that applied a naturalistic decision-making paradigm when studying use-of-force during encounters with civilians, Hine et al (2018) found that officers’ decision-making was more aligned with an intuitive style (i.e., automatic, unconscious decision-making, and heuristics), although an analytical approach was used to conduct mental simulations of possible outcomes. Furthermore, officers also experienced various cognitive, perceptual, and physiological impairments that affected their ability to successfully use force techniques, thus increasing the potential for risk of injury to either the officer or suspect ( Hine et al, 2018 ).…”

Cognitive and Affective Processing of Risk Information: A Survey Experiment on Risk-Based Decision-Making Related to Crime and Public Safety

“…In relation to law enforcement, this study furthers our understanding of how risk information should be integrated into modern-day information-based police strategies and operations ( Reuland, 1997 ; Coldren et al, 2013 ; Randol, 2014 ; Dağlar and Argun, 2016 ), and provides areas for future research. Although it is unknown how the current results may extend to or differ from a police officer sample, there is some existing research to suggest that members of police departments also exhibit dual-process risk processing in risk-based decision-making, albeit not related to the types of risk-information examined in this study ( Sztajnkrycer et al, 2010 ; Brown and Daus, 2015 ; Hine et al, 2018 ). For example, Brown and Daus (2015) found that a sample of 127 police officers exhibited both cognitive and affective processing in response to risk-related work scenarios, such as responding to a hypothetical domestic violence situation, in relation to their decision to shoot a threatening suspect.…”

“…For example, Brown and Daus (2015) found that a sample of 127 police officers exhibited both cognitive and affective processing in response to risk-related work scenarios, such as responding to a hypothetical domestic violence situation, in relation to their decision to shoot a threatening suspect. Indeed, Hine et al (2018) found officers show dual-process risk processing related to the use of force.…”