Representative Training with Less Risk: The Effects of Non-lethal Training and Conventional Ammunition in Police Use of Force Training on Heart Rate Variability

Abstract

Abstract With the goal of preventing unintentional fire-arm death and injury as well as widening the scope of police use of force training design, this study compared the impact of non-lethal training (NLT) ammunition and conventional ammunition (CA) on police officers’ psychophysiological arousal. We assessed heart rate and parasympathetic activity while police officers engaged in a demanding fighting and shooting exercise. Based on previous research, which shows that physiological arousal in representative scenario exercises does not differ from active duty operations, this study tested and corroborated the hypothesis that simulated psychophysiological demand will be the same in using both NLT and CA. Thus, the use of NLT ammunition provides a safe alternative to training the use of issue weapons with CA, equally as representative of the active duty environment of the real world. Furthermore, this study underlines that fighting elicits high levels of physiological load that police officers need to be prepared for.