Questions, Preconceptions and Reactions: Police Use of Lethal Force in Britain

Abstract

In two studies using realistic simulations the authors investigated the information requested by Authorised Firearms Officers (AFOs) while driving to an incident and the relationship between the information required and their subsequent behaviour while dealing with the incident. In study 1, 19 pairs of AFOs drove to an incident while their conversations with ‘force control’ were recorded and analysed. The study revealed that the most frequently requested information related to information regarding the suspect. Also, the study revealed that those pairs of officers who asked many questions about the weapon of the suspect were most likely to shoot the suspect in an incident where it was difficult to justify shooting. Study 2 aimed to examine causality between the number of questions asked about the weapon the perpetrator was thought to be carrying and subsequent police decisions to shoot. A total of 65 police officers read a sample of transcripts of the dialogues derived from study 1. In some transcripts relatively many questions were asked about the weapon, whereas in other transcripts relatively few questions were asked about the weapon. The officers were asked to what extent they thought the suspect would use the weapon in a threatening manner. Results indicated that police officers who read the transcripts of the dialogue in which many questions were asked about the weapon were more likely to believe that the suspect would shoot the officers when challenged than officers who read the transcripts in which few questions about the weapon were asked. The implications of these findings are discussed.