I just completed reviewing my weekly newsletter from http://BlueSheepdog.com. This is a great resource for active and retired law enforcement officers and their families. In addition, private investigators and security professionals can also benefit from the invaluable information shared on the site. I invite all my readers and professional colleges to visit the site.
In the December 2, 2010 weekly edition they reprinted the findings on The Force Science Exhaustion Study conducted by the Force Science Research Institute Ltd.
Last September the Force Science Research Team explored officer exhaustion that can be caused during confrontational situations such as shootings, feeling felons, perpetrators assaults foot pursuits or any combination of these dangerous situations. The science research team developed a unique set of experiments that put 52 volunteer recruit officers into mock police conformational situations and then studied the results. This is a remarkable study and the findings are even more remarkable. As police officers who have been involved dangerous situations and experienced the after effects we understand, but could never really describe. What is more important now is that there is now a scientific study that significantly shows what actually happens to an officer during and after they are involved in a dangerous police incident. With that being said, the institute research team now issued its official findings. They were first presented in detail in the Force Science Certification Course conducted in Wisconsin this past week (4/18-4/22) and scheduled for integration into future courses with these significant conclusions:
- Less than 60 seconds of all-out exertion, such as an officer might expend in trying to control a combative offender, can deplete the average LEO’s physical reserves and put his life in peril;
- Environmental awareness and memory are also affected adversely, hampering an involved officer’s ability to deliver accurate, detailed statements and testimony once a desperate fight is over;
- Even officers in top condition are not immune to the rapid drain of physical prowess and cognitive faculties resulting from sustained hand-to-hand combat.
Dr. Bill Lewinski, executive director of the Force Science Institute who headed up the research team, said “If an officer can’t resolve a struggle very quickly, a tactical withdrawal or swift escalation to a higher level of force may be necessary and justified for personal survival. And investigators and courts need to understand that an officer who doesn’t provide details surrounding a major physical conflict is not necessarily being deceptive, malicious, or uncooperative.”
I urge all active police officers, armed and unarmed security professionals, private investigators and prosecutors and defense attorney’s to review this article in full. It can be found at http://bit.ly/tFK6Mw.
Video footage shot by a Canadian Discovery Channel film crew is available for viewing. If you want to see actual footage on how the experiments were conducted go to http://www.forcescience.org/featured.html.
The Force Science Institute Ltd. can be found at http://www.forcescience.org/whoweare.html (http://www.forcescience.org/featured.html)
The Force Science Research Institute center is dedicated to scientifically determining and fully understanding the true physical and psychological dynamics of force encounters by conducting groundbreaking research into officer and suspect behaviors during rapidly unfolding high stress confrontations.