Decision‐Making Training for Frontline Police Officers
Effects on Situational Awareness and Team Behavior
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21391943 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Roar Espevik (0000-0002-6472-4636, Department of Leadership and Command & Control Swedish Defense University Stockholm Sweden, corresponding author), Evelyn Rose‐Saus (Department of Psychosocial Science University of Bergen Bergen Norway), Bjørn Helge Johnsen (0000-0002-4117-8935, Center for Crisis Psychology University of Bergen Bergen Norway), Sverre Sanden (0000-0002-4297-1628, Center for Crisis Psychology University of Bergen Bergen Norway), Olav Kjellevold Olsen (0000-0002-7674-7229, Department of Psychosocial Science University of Bergen Bergen Norway) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 67 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 596-604 |
| Publication date | 2026-04-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Scandinavian Journal of Psychology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0036-5564 • E-ISSN: 1467-9450 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/sjop.70050 |
| PMID | 41294077 |
| OpenAlex | W4416691765 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 24 |
Frontline police officers frequently face ambiguous and high‐pressure situations requiring rapid decision‐making under uncertainty. Traditional police training often emphasizes procedural and tactical skills, neglecting cognitive competencies such as situational awareness (SA) and shared mental models (SMM). This study investigates whether a brief, theoretically grounded decision‐making training program can enhance SA and team behavior among regular and SWAT‐type police officers during simulated arrest scenarios. A quasi‐experimental 2 × 2 factorial design was employed, involving 166 police officers (category 3: SWAT‐type; category 4: regular patrol). Participants were assigned to either a training group ( n = 54) or a control group ( n = 112). The training program consisted of three modules focusing on decision‐making frameworks, scenario‐based exercises, and group debriefings. SA was measured using the Situational Awareness Rating Scale (SARS), and team behavior was assessed by subject matter experts during ambiguous and non‐ambiguous simulated scenarios. Statistical analyses included factorial ANOVAs and planned comparisons. Trained officers demonstrated significantly higher SA scores than untrained controls ( F (1, 162) = 12.587, p F (1, 81) = 6.66, p
Cognition · Officer · Psychological safety · Rating scale · Repeated measures design · Scale (ratio) · Situation awareness · Situational ethics · Variance (accounting) · Human-Automation Interaction and Safety · Policing Practices and Perceptions · Team Dynamics and Performance
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |