Police and Military as Good Strangers

Abstract

The objective of this project was to understand why and how some police officers and military personnel are more effective than others at managing civilian encounters without creating hostility – ‘Good Strangers’ (GSs). We conducted cognitive task analysis (CTA) interviews with 17 US police officers and 24 US warfighters (Marines and Army soldiers). The interviews yielded a total of 38 incidents (17 police and 21 military), which we used to identify critical skills for functioning as GSs. These skills centred on having a sensemaking frame that established a professional identity as a GS – Someone who seeks opportunities to increase civilian trust in police/military. This frame requires skills in gaining voluntary compliance, building rapport, trading off security and other frames versus trust building, and taking the perspective of civilians.

Document Details

Document Type
Pub Defense Publication
Publication Date
Feb 27, 2015
Source ID
10.1111/joop.12110

Entities

People

  • Brian Lande
  • Gary A. Klein
  • Helen Altman Klein
  • James C. Whitacre
  • Joseph Borders

Organizations

  • Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
  • University of California, Santa Cruz

Tags

Readers

  • Military Leadership and Professional Education.
  • Political Violence and Terrorism Studies.
  • Team-Based Human-Centered Cognitive Task Decision Making and Information Performance.