Force Insight

Expert insight on police performance under pressure. Human factors, decision making, operational realism. UK Based. International. No agency affiliation.

[Force Insight @forceinsights]

Facing a use of force investigation? Force Insight offers free, confidential case evaluations. Expert human factors analysis, operational policing insight, and clear evidence strategies. Email [email protected]
https://t.co/Vf47Y3ZU4c

[Force Insight @forceinsights]

A study of 11,397 officers in England and Wales found cops who are often or always single crewed had higher odds of verbal abuse.

Those always single crewed also had higher odds of physical attacks & injuries needing medical attention.

[Force Insight @forceinsights]

@AWilsonmhealth Very. Safer, better for the mental heath of cops, better decision making. It’s really a no brainer

[Force Insight @forceinsights]

SINGLE CREWING IS AN OFFICER SAFETY ISSUE.

Single crewing is in the news again. UK evidence shows a clear correlation between single crewing & higher levels of abuse, assault & injury.

[Andy Wilson @AWilsonmhealth]

@forceinsights We were doing it years ago and didn't need a PhD to do it or understand it's value
Sad, isn't it?

[Force Insight @forceinsights]

@AWilsonmhealth The peer support aspect would make for interesting qualitative research. 👍

[Andy Wilson @AWilsonmhealth]

@forceinsights Double crewing allowed what we now refer to as peer support, immediately after difficult incidents

Those 'looking down the road' chats that really helped ....

But, stats & 'visibility', which fails us all, are more important

[Force Insight @forceinsights]

Facing a use of force investigation? Force Insight offers free, confidential case evaluations. Expert human factors analysis, operational policing insight, and clear evidence strategies. Email [email protected] https://t.co/Vf47Y3ZU4c

[Force Insight @forceinsights]

Where assault, restraint, arrest or confrontation is foreseeable, the starting point should be safe crewing.

[Force Insight @forceinsights]

PAIN COMPLIANCE. I saw the Scottish Prison Service getting some challenge in Prison Officer social media groups for their move away from pain compliance (as outlined in this story). But what does the evidence say about its effectiveness? https://t.co/P7iPCZe9BL

[Force Insight @forceinsights]

Facing a use of force investigation? Force Insight offers free, confidential case evaluations. Expert human factors analysis, operational policing insight, and clear evidence strategies. Email [email protected]
https://t.co/Vf47Y3ZU4c

[Force Insight @forceinsights]

Given there are effective alternatives to pain compliance, such as mechanical control, it would seem entirely appropriate for prison officers to be seeking to reduce reliance on pain compliance.

[Force Insight @forceinsights]

So the human factors issue is straightforward: pain compliance assumes cognition & control at the very point both are often breaking down. In high pressure incidents, pain may escalate resistance rather than secure compliance.

[Force Insight @forceinsights]

The effect is perhaps even less reliable again where alcohol, stimulants, or acute mental health crisis are impact factors. As we know, these are common impact factors in use of force incidents.

[Force Insight @forceinsights]

There is another problem. Pain can reduce the person’s ability to carry out the very movement being demanded, especially where fine motor control & balance are already degraded. In short subject’s can’t process what the cop is yelling at them to do.

[Force Insight @forceinsights]

It can also trigger reflexive defensive behaviour. Instead of creating orderly compliance, pain may produce flinching, pulling away, bracing, or striking. The very things we are trying to avoid.

[Force Insight @forceinsights]

In real life use of force incidents, acute pain rarely produces a calm cost benefit analysis in a subject. It more often drives sympathetic arousal, narrows attention, and disrupts judgment.

[Force Insight @forceinsights]

Pain compliance appears to rest on a weak assumption: that the subject will feel pain, think clearly, weigh options, & then choose compliance.