Errors in Shooting Judgment and Performance by Law Enforcement Personnel During a Stressful Training Scenario

Abstract

Police trainees who were ready to graduate from the Federal Law Enforcement Training, Center (FLETC) volunteered to participated in an exercise designed to evaluate their survivability. In a highly stressful interactive scenario, which included a hostage situation during a staged domestic dispute, performance was evaluated for a range of responses, including: weapon malfunction, shooting judgement and accuracy, communications, and emotional reactions. Nineteen percent of subjects shot the hostage, a failure rate that falls in the reported range of friendly fire casualties in military combat. The Spielberger Trait Anger Scale showed an association with shot placement and performance during the gunfight, as well as with overall performance scores.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Dec 01, 2004
Accession Number
ADA433386

Entities

People

  • Bob Burge
  • Charles D. Spielberger
  • George A. Saviolakis
  • James L. Meyerhoff
  • Terry Wollert
  • Valerie Atkins
  • William Norris

Organizations

  • Walter Reed Army Institute of Research

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical
  • Human Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Accuracy
  • Casualties
  • Domestic
  • Federal Law
  • Friendly Fire
  • Heart Rate
  • Judgment
  • Law
  • Law Enforcement
  • Law Enforcement Officers
  • Malfunctions
  • Military Operations
  • Psychology
  • Students
  • Trainees
  • Training
  • Weapons

Readers

  • Aviation Science / Aeronautics.
  • Government and Public Administration Law.
  • Military History of the United States in the 20th Century.