Decision-making of police forward commanders in high-risk situations

Police and emergency service commanders within the dynamic context of forward command require specialised cognitive skills. The aim of this study was to investigate the decision-making of Queensland Police Service Police Forward Commanders (PFCs) in a simulated high-risk situation. The specific objectives of this study were to: investigate decision-making strategies used by expert and novice PFCs when in command of a simulated high-risk situation; investigate the factors influencing the decision-making strategies used by expert and novice PFCs; develop interpretive models of decision-making for each group; and, determine recommendations for further research, operational practice, and the education and training of Police Forward Commanders. The participants were each immersed in a virtual reality environment and commanded a specifically developed high-risk situation. The high-risk situation was a siege involving an armed offender. The participants commanded the initial stages of the response to the situation which was dynamic and characterised by time and risk pressure which perpetuated a high cognitive workload. The performances were video and audio recorded. The simulation was followed by a semi-structured interview using stimulated recall from video of each participants own performances and questions derived from cognitive task analysis techniques. There was a significant contrast in the decision-making strategies demonstrated by the expert and novice PFCs. Individual and integrated decisionmaking models from each group have been developed. The expert PFCs used decision-making strategies described in the literature as intuitive whereas the novice PFCs attempted more normative analytical decision-making strategies. The expert PFCs had a high cognitive work rate which allowed them to advance beyond reacting to the situation and to become proactive. The novice PFCs in contrast were attempting to use cognitively complex strategies which included a cycle of requesting more information when uncertain. The novice PFCs had limited tactical knowledge but more pertinent was their information processing strategies which resulted in cognitive overload and negative emotional responses which were counter productive. The decision-making of the novice PFCs was often reactive and unable to compromise the external pressures of time and multiple tasks with cognitive strategies which were inefficient. The main factors that characterised the decision-making of the expert PFCs included: demonstrating working schemata; the ability to develop situation awareness and situation models; specific information seeking and processing and proactive goal directed behaviour. The main factors that influenced the decisionmaking of the novice PFCs included: stress, fear and self attention; general information searches; overload of working memory; loss aversion and reactive goal directed behaviour. Operational implications are discussed. The study provides recommendations for the training and education of PFCs in dealing with high-risk situations. In addition to strengthening knowledge and skills, the training of PFCs should also foster active learning strategies developing meta-cognitive skills that build adaptive expertise. PFCs need to be able to modify strategies, intrinsic and extrinsic, as well· as their goal directed actions. A key factor in developing the ability of PFCs to command high-risk situations is deliberate practice. Deliberate practice for PFCs should incorporate methodology such as stress exposure training and the use of simulation. This study underlines the importance of experience provided by simulation which replicates high-risk situations in a controlled yet realistic manner