O tiro de polícia: decisão irreversível em ambientes complexos

Abstract

In dynamic environments with a high degree of uncertainty, the response time is shorter, as the anticipatory process simplifies the selection of information, focuses on the target and simultaneously uses strategies to control the environment, where intuition or instinct, whenever resorting to long-term working memory and allied to greater experience, practice and expertise, they increase the efficiency of the decision, whose success is all the greater, the closer the “scanning environment” is (Tenenbaum, 2004). Considering some complex and stressful police environments (eg, searches, arrests of criminals, brawls), the criminal investigator is required to be able to manage the unpredictability and associated risk, and to decide quickly from the selection and treatment of situational information, only possible if there are organizationally high levels of training and frequent training, with a focus on simulator shooting exercises because they are closer to reality. The police decision-making process is, for the reasons invoked, complex and conditioned by psychophysiological, environmental and task variables (Davies, 2015). Complex social systems require high technical skills at the level of police shooting and inherently the TD of criminal investigators of the PJ, whose performance, through the only known study in Portugal with these variables, should be the object of reflection as it shows data that is not in line with the socially intended results of excellence.