Officers interviewing witnesses are “potentially reducing the amount of information retrieved” by talking too much, asking too many closed-end questions, and failing to adhere to science-based methods for mining memory, according to new findings by a Canadian research team. Analyzing a sample of 90 interviews with witnesses to violent crimes, the team discovered that: On...Read More
In one word, name a critical–and unfortunately common–mistake investigators make when interviewing police officers who have been involved in shootings. The answer, according to UCLA psychology professor, Dr. Ed Geiselman, is interrupt. “I’ve seen police officers–as well as other presumably cooperative witnesses–bursting at the seams to tell their account of an incident only to be...Read More
A new look at why officers often fire controversial “extra” shots after a threat has ended has been published by an independent shooting reconstructionist and certified Force Science analyst. Researcher Alexander Jason reports that even under benign experimental conditions brain programming compels roughly 7 out of 10 officers to keep discharging rounds after being signaled...Read More
How do principles of human behavior and memory stimulation studied in Force Science certification classes get applied in real-world policing? Consider the recent experiences of 2 police trainers and Force Science graduates who played pivotal roles in significant use-of-force investigations, 1,700 miles and an international border apart. In one, an officer ended up cleared of...Read More
A police sergeant and a district attorney in Oregon have independently found new ways to spread Force Science insights about officer-involved shootings to broader audiences, to the benefit of law enforcement and civilians alike. Both hope that others with a vested interest in deadly force events will follow their lead in other jurisdictions. The sergeant...Read More
A new research project getting underway at Washington State University in Spokane aims to develop a means to “dramatically improve the ability to measure police officer performance in deadly force encounters, and thus evaluate the impact of management and training practices.” The result “has the potential to help save lives” as well as to “increase...Read More
Part 2 of a 2-part series The suspect Tactical Ofcr. Kurt Kezeske was after had just stabbed his girlfriend in the neck and chest so viciously that when she fled their residence and collapsed in a snow bank, she bled to death in moments. Kezeske shoved open the kitchen door, and there he was, 3...Read More
Part 1 of a 2-part series What helps and what hurts after a fatal shooting? Nobody knows better than officers who’ve been there. Recently a panel of 6 survivors of shootings in Wisconsin, along with 2 instructors who’ve collectively been involved in the aftermath of dozens of deadly police encounters, spoke their mind on the...Read More
The latest time-and-motion study from the Force Science Research Center offers investigators and prosecutors a new tool to apply to officer-involved shootings and other threat encounters and presents trainers with a challenge in improving their students’ firearms skills. The study’s core findings are captured in a unique grid chart that you can download and print...Read More
Fascinating experiments by 2 California researchers show that young civilians who might someday be on an OIS jury overwhelmingly disagree with veteran officers about when police are justified in shooting armed, threatening perpetrators. Interestingly, tests also reveal that when facing shoot/don’t shoot decisions of their own, civilians tend to be quick on the trigger—and often...Read More
