Police In-Service Training
This podcast is dedicated to providing research evidence to street-level police officers and command staff alike. The program is intended to provide research in a jargon-free manner that cuts through the noise, misinformation, and misperceptions about the police. The discussions with policing experts will help the law enforcement community create better programs, understand challenging policies, and dispel myths of police officer behavior.
The Police - Clinician Co-Responder Model
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Mental health calls to the police can be challenging for many reasons. One of the primary problems with sending the police is that they are not usually properly trained to handle a person experiencing a mental health crisis. The past few years have seen shifts from a law enforcement to a service response. The Co-Responder model melds police officers and social service clinicians with the goal of improving services while maintaining safety for the responders, the public, and the patient. Dr. Vaughn Crichlow, the dean of the School of Justice Studies at Roger Will...
Female Police Officers: Should I Stay or Should I Go
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Increasing the number of female police officers is a challenge for police agencies. While there has been ample research on this topic, the issue remains, and so the research continues. Dr. Kathleen Padilla, from the School of Criminal Justice & Criminology at Texas State University, joins the podcast to discuss her 2024 study exploring the advice current and former female officers would give those who are thinking about entering the police profession.
Main Topics
Females in policing can no longer be considered “token” hires.The “30x30” program is intende...The Police - Researcher Partnership
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The goal of this podcast is provide the police community with research information to improve their work or help solve a problem. I could not do this without the research that is produced by scholars who have a solid working relationship with police agencies. It’s helpful that this topic itself, police-researcher collaborations, has been studied to understand the motivations and barriers to this relationship. Dr. Jeff Rojek from Michigan State University discusses his work in this area. One of the more important findings from the research may be the result of what the st...
Police Training and Reform Topics: How Culture Impacts Acceptance
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There are many new training programs being offered to police officers, and policy reforms are almost as prevalent. This is no surprise, as both training and reforms are intended to improve modern policing. What is less understood is the multi-dimensional aspects of training and reforms, and the diversity of police culture, which can impact the acceptance of both training topics and policy reforms. Trey Bussey joins the podcast to discuss the complex relationship between all three concepts, and that police leaders need to consider this relationship if improvements are going to be successful.
<...Defund the Police? Not So Fast.
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The answer to problems in policing is better policing, not its abolition. If the move to eliminate policing were successful, “people will hate you.” That was the response of Dr. Paige Vaughn, assistant professor in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of South Carolina. In this episode, Dr. Vaughn explains that studying the public’s perception of the police is nuanced, but the bottom-line finding is that the public expects the police to be part of most emergency responses, crime or otherwise. Our conversation also moved into aspects of organizati...
Policing and Shooting Data: How to Show Success
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Policing tactics are directly related to those used to improve public health (e.g., the impact of abandoned housed on crime and interventions to reduce gun violence). Policing can also benefit by including success stories along the lines of those used by many industries: counting the number of accident-free days. Dr. Branas, the Chair of the department of epidemiology at Columbia University, discusses a recent study that supports using “shooting-free days” to measure crime prevention success. Dr. Branas suggests that this approach does not replace counting shootings; rather, it provides a counter approach to unde...
Code Enforcement: Policing with a Light Footprint
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Policing includes more than just law enforcement. Crime reduction is a thinking game: how can the police succeed while also saving their own time and resources? Hunter M. Boehme, an assistant professor in the Department of Criminology & Criminal Justice at the University of South Carolina, joins the podcast to discuss what I call “less formal” methods for reducing crime.
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Soft power is still power. Enforcing civil code violations can be used to reduce some violent crimes.Non-sworn policing personnel, or even city employees, can pro...Delayed Decisions in Policing: Choosing the Least Worst Option
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If a police officer is facing a critical incident they may delay their decisions because of something called “decision inertia.” Officers don’t freeze up, but delay or fail to make decisions due to uncertainty. Paradoxically, that uncertainty can be the result of training or agency policies that are intended to guide behavior. Dr. Brandon May explains the issue, and discusses his research that found that when officers are offered a least worst option, they will make a decision to resolve an complex choice.
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Redundant deliberat...LAPD: How an Historical Examination can Improve Policing
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Understanding a police agencies history, both successes and failures, provides important insights for creating transparency and accountability. Dr. Craig Uchida, from Justice Security Solutions, discusses his historical research at the LAPD, and explains some of the recommendations for improving policing, which can be made permanent in an agency.
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Examining organizational history, as well as environmental context, matters when understanding police agencies and future plans.Using a consent decree as an accountability tool.Leadership, whether organizational or political, must recognized its OWN r...Police Use-of-Force Continuum
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The Use-of-Force Continuum is intended to provide guidance for police officers on the appropriate, proportional level of force to use when trying to gain compliance. There seems to be a logical progression in the modern continuum, constructed in with the goal of minimizing an officer’s use of force. This research found that physical force (soft and hard) as a ‘lower’ force option than less-lethal tools is associated with increased officer injury.
Main Topics
•There is a “muddy middle” in the continuum, complicating the logical progression of some type of force.
•...
The Moral Injury of Police Work
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A police officer’s mental health can be impacted by more than just the personal and physical trauma they experience on the street. Moral injuries are less tangible but similarly harmful events that can contribute to psychological and depressive disorders. Dr. Lorraine Smith-MacDonald explains moral injuries and how they can impact police officers.
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Moral injuries are the psychological, emotional, or spiritual pain resulting from exposure to one or more events involving the transgression or violation of deeply held morals, ethics, or values.The research uncovered several “themes...Trauma-Informed Sexual Assault Training for Police Investigations
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Trauma-informed interview training can help street-level police officers and investigators when interviewing sexual assault victims. The training applies a victim-centered approach for understanding how trauma impacts memory and behavior. Dr. Bradley Campbell discusses his research that evaluates the effectiveness of Trauma-informed interview training.
Main Topics
•Sexual assault myths can negatively impact an officer’s understanding of a victim’s interview response
•Trauma-informed interview training skills can be applied to other police-citizen interactions
•Trained actors may be a necessary approach for realistic police scenario-based training.
Don't forg...
Organizational Justice and Policing
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Organizational Justice is a close relative or Procedural Justice. And if it’s important for officers to treat citizens in a procedurally just manner, it is also important for police supervisors to treat their officers in an organizationally just manner. Dr. Scott Wolfe explains the application of Organizational Justice in police agencies and how it can mediate the occupational stress of a police officer.
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Organizational Justice entails four components that are applied by police supervisors and leaders.An Organizationally Just work environment can reduce the officer’s beli...Investigative Checklists in Policing
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Checklists are intended to improve the efficiency of people who have to perform in a complex work environment. Dr. Cory Haberman joins the podcast to discuss his research into the effectiveness of using checklists in policing. He also talks about the use of virtual reality tools in policing research (including a mildly embarrassing story of learning to use VR goggles for the first time).
Main Topics
•Checklists demonstrated a significant improvement in evidence collection when used by streel officers when conducting a routine burglary investigation.
...
Police Academy Training
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Dr. Gene Paoline discusses his research into police academy training in the United States. Using Bureau of Justice Statistics data from their census of police academy’s, Gene and his colleagues identified six basic themes of academy training.
Main Topics
Police academy training has not changed substantially in nearly twenty years.There is an imbalance in academy training (academy topics vs. what's done on the street; academy topics themselves).“More” training is not necessarily the issue, it has more to do with “what topics” are trained.More information is needed on...The Ethics of Evidence-Based Policing
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Dr. Renee Mitchell joins the podcast to discuss evidence-based policing, and that law enforcement agencies have an ethical obligation to institute, whenever possible, policies and programs that are sound and supported by research.
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Medical research provides empirical evidence to support a doctor’s decisions; it’s not guesswork.Appling evidence-based research to policing has shown success in crime prevention tactics.Policing should, at the very least, try to “not make things worse.”Implementing evidence-based programs is necessary to move policing toward a true profession.Don't forget t...
Police Body-Worn Cameras and Mental Health Calls
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Police body-worn cameras (BWC) have been around for several years, and a large number of studies have examined their acceptance by officers and their impact on use-of-force incidents. Recent research expands on more subtle aspects of the use of body cameras. This week Dr. Vincent Mousseau discusses his recent research, looking at officer’s views of activating body cameras when engaged with a person experiencing a mental health event.
Main Topics
Officers provided diverse opinions on the proper use of BWC when dealing with these calls for service.The research finds...Human Trafficking: Identifying Victims
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Human trafficking is not the first thing you might think about as a policing issue, but it occurs everywhere. In this episode Dr’s Gibbs and Strohacker from Penn State Harrisburg discuss their research that indicates training is imperative for street-level officers to recognize human trafficking.
Main Topics
•While human trafficking is portrayed in a sensational manner in entertainment media, officers are really navigating more nuanced situations, ambiguous situations.
•A survey of police officers from a large agency in Pennsylvania found that training, rather than experience handing or inves...
Police De-Escalation
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Dr. Robin Engel takes a deep dive into police de-escalation, an approach that includes techniques to reduce the tension that can be part of any police-citizen interaction. The tactics are designed to minimize the use of force by resolving incidents peacefully.
Main Topics
Until recently, de-escalation research was non-existent and seen as potentially threating to the officers.Dr. Engel discusses how training contributed to substantial reductions in the use-of-force, as well as reductions in officer injuries.Still, de-escalation training must be combined with supervisor support and frequent reminders of...Episode 14: When the Police Back Off
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There have been many questions about police proactive behavior and its impact on crime. In 2020 two events caused police officers to “back off” on their street activity. Dr. Jessica Huff explains the research into de-policing and how a reduction in proactive behavior lead to an increase in some types of crime.
Main Topics
Police officers backed off on their proactive behavior as the result of both department policy during COVID, as well as the social pressure after the death of George Floyd.Street-level officers demonstrated a sign...Episode 13: High-Stress and Officer Recall
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A police officer’s body camera can record the objective reality of an event, but the officer’s recall of the event will often be inaccurate. Dr. Louise Porter from Griffith University joins the podcast to discuss her research exploring the memory and recall of police officers who are exposed to high-stress events.
Main Topics
-Dr. Porter discussed the perceptual distortions as they related to high stress events.
-We cover the differences in asking officers to document an incident as soon as possible or providing them with a waitin...
Episode 12: Policing Deaths during Active Shooter Events
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Police officers are trained to use deadly physical force as a last resort. They are also trained to reduce their own risk of death. Active shooter events, however, require a different behavior formula. Officers are trained to move toward danger, and there is an expectation that they should “kill the killer” (as stated by a Florida Sheriff after the active shooting incident at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School). These behaviors may contribute to the deaths of police officers. Dr. Pete Blair, from Texas State University, joins us to break down these events and what...
Episode 11: Contagious Fire
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Whenever a police officer fires their weapon at another person it is important to understand why. What were the conditions that lead to the shooting? Explaining why a single officer shoots two or three times is important but explaining why three or four officers empty their clips seems to be a completely different question.
To better understand the idea of something called “contagious fire” we are joined today by Eric Dlugolenski from Central Connecticut State University.
Main Topics
•We’ll discuss the importance of studying contagious fire even if it’s a rare even...
Episode 10: Hot Spots Policing
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Hot spots policing has been around for more than 20 years, and there are many studies exploring its use. Joining us to discuss the broad range of research on the topic is Brandon Turchan, a professor of criminal justice at Michigan State University.
Main Topics
•We’ll summarize the nuts and bolts of hot spots policing.
•Brandon will explain that even if a hot spot never goes away, the police can keep these locations “cool.”
•Hot spots policing tactics can be successful, but the gains are amplified whe...
Episode 9: Police Mental Health and Wellness
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Studies show that a police officer experiences as many traumatic events in 6 months as the average person does across their entire lifetime. These stressful experiences can build up within an officer and lead to any number of personal and professional problems. For several decades there has been some recognition by policing to the impact of stress, and this has increased their willingness to do something about it. This episode will explore some of the current research into the mental health services available to the police.
Main Topics
•What are the v...
Episode 8: Academy Training
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In recent years there has been a small shift in how the police should frame their goals, and how police academies should train new recruits. The “guardian” approach to policing emphasizes community service, democracy, procedural justice, and de-escalation.
Shifting from a warrior training framework to a guardian framework may be a false dichotomy choice. Both frameworks are like the opposite sides of a coin: both are necessary to make the coin. It may be media "copiganda" that forces the warrior perspective on the police and the public.
Joining us on the...
Episode 7: Artificial Intelligence in Policing
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Technological advancements have always found their way into policing, and Artificial Intelligence is no exception.
Dr. Ian Adams joins the podcast today to discuss some of the seminal research exploring AI in policing. Ian is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of South Carolina. Ian is also a 2023 National Institute of Justice LEADS (Law Enforcement Advancing Data and Science) Academic, and he is the Managing Editor for Police Practice & Research: An International Journal. In a prior life Ian was a police officer who work...
Episode 6: Police Hiring and Retention
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Police agencies are experiencing an increased loss in staffing and complex issues when trying to fill those positions.
This week Dr. Joe Schafer from Arizona State University's School of Criminology & Criminal Justice joins the podcast to explore the issue of hiring and retention. Joe goes beyond the obvious factors, such as better pay, to discuss subtle elements of hiring and retention, such as generational considerations in how officers view the occupation, temporary assignments to relieve stress, and agency consolidation to reduce the need for officers to find job enrichment in larger de...
Episode 5: Procedural Justice
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Procedural Justice is more than a simple buzzword. It is related to police legitimacy, de-escalation, hot spots policing, and organizational justice.
This week we talk with Dr. Justin Nix, a Distinguished Associate Professor in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Nebraska Omaha, where he teaches classes on policing and coordinates the Master of Arts degree program. Justine offers a solid discussion of Procedural Justice basics, but also delves into empowerment hypothesis and legal estrangement.
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Episode 4: Policing and Drug Treatment
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At its most fundamental level, policing is a public service. And there is a trend in policing to recognize that duty. This episode will explore how some police agencies have begun to work with service providers to help people into drug treatment. Professor Sean Varano, from Roger Williams University, discusses some of the complexities of this goal. Dr. Varano is an active collaborator with local communities implementing and evaluating evidence-based approaches to crime and public health. He was a co-principal investigator/evaluator for the City of Providence’s Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) gang reduct...
Episode 3: Policing Humor
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"Policing Humor" can be interpreted in two ways. First, the cops are cracking down on jokes or anyone trying to be a "funny guy." Second, and correctly, the notion that policing expose officers to a lot of funny situations. But there is utility in humor, and we'll examine this in the podcast. Further, attempts to take away the ability for officers to crack jokes with each other can have negative effects on officers and policing in general.
I'm joined by S. Marlon Gayadeen from Buffalo State University who will bring some depth...
Episode 1: Origin Story - Police Firearms
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Why am I spending time on a podcast for the police? I want to get officers and command staff information that can help them in their jobs. This first episode explains the goals of this podcast, and since I'm discussing the origins of this idea, I decided to start with a conversation about police firearms. We think the police have been carrying sidearms forever, but that's not true. The police have been responding to their work environment with increased firepower simply because that's what they've been up against. Cops are not "boys with toy...
Episode 2: Police Officer Involved Shootings
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In this episode we speak with Steven Bishopp, a Major in the Dallas Police Department. Steve has been with the DPD for over 30 years. Currently, he leads the R&D division, which handles police crime numbers from the reports officers do in the field. He also leads the department's UCR/NIBRS team, which validates offense and arrest data under NIBRS rules and submits monthly data to Texas DPS/FBI NIBRS. Steve earned a Ph.D. from UT Dallas, and has been published many times on a variety of subjects. If you'd like to track...
Police In-Service Training Podcast Trailer
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A short trailer describing the podcast.
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You can also contact me at: Bluesky: @policeinservice.bsky.social
