In a previous post, we reported an after-action paper authored by a team of medical professionals regarding a terrorist attack on a conference center in San Bernardino, CA, in which 14 people were killed and 22 seriously wounded. That study, headed by Dr. Joshua Bobko, has been challenged for allegedly containing “factual errors that are...Read More
Two new books have crossed our desk of late, addressing two high-priority challenges for law enforcement: how to mitigate crises that threaten public confidence in policing and how to design training scenarios that offer realistic stress immersion to prepare officers for the street. Reviews follow below: 1. Are you ready for the crisis ordeal that...Read More
A Scientific Approach to Reality Based Training is a guidebook that will help you create realistic, effective, stress-infused scenarios to train and test your officers’ use-of-force skills under pressure. Authors, certified Force Science Analysts Dr. Terry Wollert and Jeff Quail, lead you step by step through research-supported methods for designing and conducting powerful simulations that...Read More
In an after-action report on a major terrorist attack on American soil, a team of medical professionals claims that first-responder agencies are not keeping pace with current terrorist methods in terms of their Tactical Medical Care preparedness. The present prevailing approach to training and equipment “emphasizes the need for hemorrhage control [for handgun wounds] but...Read More
Contrary to the prevailing depiction of police in virtually every news cycle, a new study confirms once again that use of force by officers is actually a rare occurrence. A research team headed by Dr. William Bozeman of the Dept. of Emergency Medicine at Wake Forest School of Medicine in North Carolina reviewed police and...Read More
The persistent urge by police critics to tighten restrictions on the use of force surfaced again this month after a controversial shooting in Sacramento, California. A state legislator told a press conference that she will introduce a bill to change the legal standard for law enforcement in California from using “objectively reasonable force” to “necessary...Read More
What kinds of calls for service present the greatest risk of fatal attacks for US law enforcement officers? Here’s the latest grim ranking, according to a newly released updated report from the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund and the federal DOJ that covers a seven-year span from 2010-2016: Domestic dispute calls were the most...Read More
A succinct guide to the human factors that can affect an officer’s memory after a shooting or other use-of-force crisis has been posted for free access online by Lexipol, the law enforcement policy and risk-management organization. Click here to download a copy. The four-page “Explainer Document,” written by two Force Science graduates, is a handy...Read More
A recent officer-involved shooting in rural Iowa is typical of many that occur across North America. The sheriff’s office involved hadn’t experienced an OIS in at least three decades. The county prosecutor, responsible for evaluating legal justification, hadn’t handled one in 17 years. “In locales other than large metropolitan areas, an OIS tends to be...Read More
The attorney general of Texas issued an opinion recently that an officer is legally entitled to see all footage from his body camera, as well as that from the cameras of other officers at the scene, before giving an official statement about an incident the officer was involved in. Police critics were quick to allege...Read More