Police officer involved shootings – retrospective study of situational characteristics

Petersson, U.; Bertilsson, Johan; Fredriksson, Peter J.; Magnusson, Måns; Fransson, Per-Anders

doi:10.1080/15614263.2017.1291592

Cited by 17 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 25 publications

(27 reference statements)

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“…The green bar in the heart rate/pupil size diagram shows for what period during the test sequence the images displayed originate. D1 -D4 in the recording stands for performing tasks 1task 4. still necessary to ascertain that these individuals can deal with the consequences of the stress response, which may require optimized training of properly selected techniques, tactics and use of adapted equipment to diminish the negative effects (Bertilsson et al, 2017;Petersson et al, 2017). That said, sometimes training and experience might still not be enough to make someone able to handle high-stress situations in real life (Dahl, Granér, Fransson, Bertilsson, & Fredriksson, 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards systematic and objective evaluation of police officer performance in stressful situations

Bertilsson¹,

Niehorster

Fredriksson

et al. 2019

Police Practice and Research

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To ensure a continuous high standard of police units, it is critical to recruit people who perform well in stressful situations. Today, this selection process includes performing a large series of tests, which still may not objectively reveal a person's capacity to handle a life-threatening situation when subjected to high levels of stress. To obtain more systematic and objective data, 12 police officers were exposed to six scenarios with varying levels of threat while their heart rate and pupil size were monitored. The scenarios were filmed and six expert evaluators assessed the performance of the police officers according to seven predefined criteria. Four of the scenarios included addressing a moderate threat level task and the scenarios were executed in a rapid sequence. Two further scenarios included a familiar firearm drill performed during high and low threat situations. The results showed that there was a large agreement between the experts in how they judged the performance of the police officers (p < 0.001). Performance increased significantly over tasks in four of the seven evaluation criteria (p ≤ 0.037). There was also a significant effect of pupil size (p = 0.004), but not heart rate, when comparing the different sequential scenarios. Moreover, a high level of threat considerably impaired the motor performance of the police officers during the firearms drill (p = 0.002). Finally, the pupil seemed to systematically dilate more when a threat appeared immediately than with a delay in the scenarios (p = 0.007). We conclude that systematic and quantitative judgments from experts provide valuable and reliable information about the performance of participants in realistic and stressful policing scenarios. Furthermore, objective physiological measures of heart rate and pupil size may help to explain and understand why performance sometimes deteriorates.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards systematic and objective evaluation of police officer performance in stressful situations

Bertilsson¹,

Niehorster

Fredriksson

et al. 2019

Police Practice and Research

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“…An extensive body of international research has addressed various perspectives on police use of force, including police-public encounters and use of force (Alpert & Dunham, 1997;Bayley & Garofalo, 1989;Garner et al, 1996;Garner et al, 2002;Manzoni & Eisner, 2006;McKenzie, 1996;Nickel, 2015); characteristics and prevalence of force (Garner et. al, 2002;Klahm & Tillyer, 2010;Terrill, 2001); moral beliefs and use of force (Noppe, 2016); suspect mental disorder and use of force (Donner, 2012;Johnson, 2011;Rossler & Terrill, 2017); excessive force (Alpert & Smith, 1994;Atherley & Hickman, 2014); the force continuum (Garner et al, 1995;Terrill, 2001;Terrill & Paoline, 2013); police use of force and subject resistance (Boivin & Lagacé, 2016); police officer gender and use of force Paoline & Terrill, 2005;Schuck & Rabe-Hemp, 2007); police officer experience and use of force (Croft 1985;Paoline & Terrill, 2007;Terrill & Mastrofski, 2002); prevalence of use of force at the agency level (Terrill et al, 2008;Worden, 2015); deadly force (Geller & Scott, 1992;McElvain & Kposowa, 2008); police use of firearms (Belur, 2010(Belur, , 2014Burrows, 2007;Boulton & Cole, 2016;Petersson et al, 2017;Punch, 2010), and the impact of realistic use of for...…”

Section: Previous Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Force Continuum: Prevalence and Characteristicsof Police Use of Coercive Force

Henriksen

Kruke

2020

NJSP

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This study is among the first to investigate police use of coercive force in Norway; its purpose is to provide a general overview of the prevalence and particularly the characteristics of Norwegian police emergency response officers' use of force. Self-reported data from police emergency response officers show a prevalence of use of force equivalent to approximately once per month in a variety of situations. In the vast majority of these situations, use of force is concentrated at the lower end of the force continuum, and use of firearms is very rare. Subjects are predominantly male, and the vast majority of them are intoxicated and/or mentally ill. In addition, current law and instructions may include inadequate formal definitions of what constitutes a use of force by the police, at the lower end of the force continuum. Thus, there is a need for a more precise and agreed upon definition as a baseline for reporting.

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“…However, the psychological stress response may also cause several physical changes with sometimes opposite effects than those caused by physical stress, e.g., a narrowing of peripheral blood vessels (vasoconstriction) instead of a widening (Ulrich-Lai and Herman, 2009). Psychological stress and the stress response can in different contexts either improve or impair the perceptive, cognitive and motor performance depending on factors like the properties of the perceived threat and the strength of the stress response (Siddle, 1995; Stefanucci et al, 2008; Qin et al, 2009; Bertilsson et al, 2013; Petersson et al, 2017). The performance typically follows an inverted U-function with increasing stress levels, i.e., the performance increases when the stress levels increase from low to moderate and thereafter decreases if the stress levels increase from moderate to high levels (Yerkes and Dodson, 1908; Siddle, 1995; Grossman and Christensen, 2004).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stress Levels Escalate When Repeatedly Performing Tasks Involving Threats

et al. 2019

Self Cite

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Police work may include performing repeated tasks under the influence of psychological stress, which can affect perceptual, cognitive and motor performance. However, it is largely unknown how repeatedly performing stressful tasks physically affect police officers in terms of heart rate and pupil diameter properties. Psychological stress is commonly assessed by monitoring the changes in these biomarkers. Heart rate and pupil diameter was measured in 12 male police officers when performing a sequence of four stressful tasks, each lasting between 20 and 130 s. The participants were first placed in a dimly illuminated anteroom before allowed to enter a brightly lit room where a scenario was played out. After each task was performed, the participants returned to the anteroom for about 30 s before performing the next sequential task. Performing a repeated sequence of stressful tasks caused a significant increase in heart rate ( p = 0.005). The heart rate started to increase already before entering the scenario room and was significantly larger just after starting the task than just before starting the task ( p < 0.001). This pattern was more marked during the first tasks ( p < 0.001). Issuance of a verbal “abort” command which terminated the tasks led to a significant increase of heart rate ( p = 0.002), especially when performing the first tasks ( p = 0.002). The pupil diameter changed significantly during the repeated tasks during all phases but in a complex pattern where the pupil diameter reached a minimum during task 2 followed by an increase during tasks 3 and 4 ( p ≤ 0.020). During the initial tasks, the pupil size ( p = 0.014) increased significantly. The results suggest that being repeatedly exposed to stressful tasks can produce in itself an escalation of psychological stress, this even prior to being exposed to the task. However, the characteristics of both the heart rate and pupil diameter were complex, thus, the findings highlight the importance of studying the effects and dynamics of different stress-generating factors. Monitoring heart rate was found useful to screen for stress responses, and thus, to be a vehicle for indication if and when rotation of deployed personnel is necessary to avoid sustained high stress exposures.

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Police officer involved shootings – retrospective study of situational characteristics

Cited by 17 publications

References 25 publications

Towards systematic and objective evaluation of police officer performance in stressful situations

Towards systematic and objective evaluation of police officer performance in stressful situations

The Force Continuum: Prevalence and Characteristicsof Police Use of Coercive Force

Stress Levels Escalate When Repeatedly Performing Tasks Involving Threats

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