1. Chicago officers win right to 24-hr. “grace period” An arbitrator has ruled that Chicago officers involved in shootings can wait at least 24 hours before having to give a recorded statement to investigators from the municipal agency that reviews police shootings. The decision resulted from a grievance filed by Chicago Lodge 7 of the...Read More
The dominant goal of citizen police academy programs is to get civilians to walk a mile in an officer’s boots. Thanks to the creativity of Force Science Analyst Steven Goard, those who attend the academy conducted by the Livermore (CA) PD walk an important extra mile—through the landmines of a simulated OIS investigation that tests...Read More
Researchers are beginning to realize that there’s an unexpected benefit when investigators conduct skillful interviews of officers who’ve survived shootings and other life-threatening encounters. In addition to eliciting more and better information, good questioning techniques tend to ease the emotional after-burn that many officers experience in the wake of traumatic events and leave survivors with...Read More
An unusual collaboration between a former police psychologist, a senior deputy city attorney, and an internationally known researcher has resulted in a new position paper that strongly encourages agencies to use the special techniques of “cognitive interviewing” when taking statements from officers who survive shootings. Interrogating officers in the same traditional manner as criminal suspects...Read More
A “national snapshot” of in-service firearms training for municipal and county LEOs raises grave “concerns about how prepared many police officers are” for winning life-threatening encounters, according to a new report from a respected university researcher. The report also highlights post-shooting practices in many agencies that are hampering trainers’ efforts to improve their programs. After...Read More
A northern California transit officer who was fired on charges of lying about circumstances that preceded a nationally controversial OIS has been ordered reinstated after an arbitration hearing in which Force Science played a pivotal role. Twenty-nine-year-old MarySol Domenici was among half a dozen Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) officers whose actions were challenged amidst...Read More
Contrary to persistent myth, where a cartridge case lands when it’s ejected from a semiautomatic pistol is not a reliable indicator of where the shooter was standing when the gun was fired. That fact has been scientifically confirmed by the Force Science Institute in a series of research experiments starting back in 2004. “Yet some...Read More
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,...Read More
There’s now more evidence that waiting “a day or 2” after a shooting before interviewing an involved officer will likely produce more accurate and complete recall than insisting on immediate questioning. That conclusion is reported by Dr. Ed Geiselman, a UCLA psychology professor and a faculty member for the Force Science Analysis certification course, after...Read More
Two expert witnesses with Force Science backgrounds are believed to have been influential in a jury’s recent decision to reject a murder conviction of a former transit officer accused of deliberately shooting an unarmed suspect in the back during a handcuffing scuffle. The witnesses, Dr. Bill Lewinski, executive director of the Force Science Institute, and...Read More
