Police Training Programs Research Articles

A prospective study of health-related lifestyle changes among police cadets

The objectives of this prospective study were to explore the health-related lifestyle of police cadets and assess changes in their health behaviors following entry into the police force. To do so, 190 police cadets completed an online questionnaire assessing their physical activity level, sedentary behaviors, diet quality, sleep hygiene, alcohol consumption, cigarette smoking, and stress level. One year following their graduation from the police training program, participants were invited to, once again, complete the questionnaire. Our results suggest that police cadets generally display healthy lifestyles, with very few cadets being physically inactive, smokers, reporting insufficient sleep duration, and displaying obesity. Nevertheless, paired-sample comparisons highlighted significant decreases in physical activity, fruit and vegetable intake, sleep duration, and sleep quality at the follow-up. Likewise, significant increases in fast-food consumption and BMI were observed.

Proposed Strategic Framework for Specialized Police Training Program towards Enhancing Police Performance in Abu Dhabi

Abu Dhabi Police is currently experiencing severe decline in officer performance Thus, reviewing the police training programme has been viewed as urgent and deemed necessary to enhance the performance. This study presents a strategic framework that highlights the vitality of specialized training programs to enhance police performance in Abu Dhabi. The results may help to affirm relationship between specialist training program, human technology capability development, and police officers’ performance. The strategic framework may be instrumental to Abu Dhabi Police Department to prepare their police force with specialized training programs and human technology capacity.

“There Is No Script”: Police Teachers’ Experiences of Training Investigative Interviewing

AbstractSwedish police are implementing a new model for investigative interviewing. Previous research has highlighted that investigative interviewing is difficult to operationalize and teach to recruits. This study aimed to understand what Swedish police teachers value as important interpersonal skills for investigative interviewing as well as what strategies and struggles these teachers face when teaching recruits. Interviews were conducted with six experienced interviewing teachers at Swedish police training programs. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis. The teachers described that taking the interviewee’s perspective and accepting responsibility to build rapport, as well as social and situational flexibility were important skills for interviewers to process. When describing their strategies and struggles in teaching, the teachers described the need to bridge theory and practice, train flexibility through diverse scenarios, adjust to students’ social maturity and ability to self-reflect, and work with limited resources. This study also highlights how interviewing teachers express a need for adequate time and resources to be able to help recruits develop the necessary skills for interviewing.

Exploring police attitudes on victims’ delayed reporting and victim blame in technology-facilitated IPV

Background settingCyberstalking, now conceptualised as one of the forms of technology-facilitated intimate partner violence (TFIPV), has seen an exponential rise in recent years. TFIPV victims may hesitate and delay reporting cyberstalking to the police for various reasons (e.g., lack of recognition, thinking that it may be a waste of time, hoping it will stop etc.) and thus potentially influence how investigating police officers perceive their credibility and responsibility. This study investigates the recognition of cyberstalking as a crime among police personnel and the potential effect of reporting delays on police officers’ attitudes towards the victims.MethodsAn online survey was conducted with 108 police officers in the UK, who were presented with a vignette illustrating one of three almost identical scenarios, differing only in the time of reporting (after one month, after six months, after 12 months). Subsequently, participants completed a questionnaire that assessed their recognition of the case as cyberstalking and their attitudes towards victims. All police officers had received predetermined police training at various levels. In addition to these police training programmes, a minority of officers (27) had attended the specialised training programme on intimate partner violence, Domestic Abuse (DA) Matters, while the majority (81) had not.ResultsAmong the officers who completed the aforementioned special training, all except one recognised the case as cyberstalking; contrastingly, out of 81 officers without such special training 28 expressed uncertainty, whereas three did not recognise it at all. The victim’s delay to report cyberstalking had a significant effect on police officers’ victim blaming levels. The gender of police officers and their police training level were not identified as moderators of the relationship between victim’s delay in cyberstalking reporting and victim blaming.ConclusionsThese findings highlight the importance for enhanced recognition and understanding of cyberstalking among police officers, particularly through specialised training programs. The study underscores the importance of addressing attitudes towards victims with the goal of improving police responses to TFIPV.

Proposed Strategic Framework for Specialized Police Training Program towards Enhancing Police Performance in Abu Dhabi

Proposed Strategic Framework for Specialized Police Training Program towards Enhancing Police Performance in Abu Dhabi

From pain compliance to leverage-based control: Evidence of reduced use of force severity and injuries following police training

Abstract Training is a frequently requested response to contentious police use of force incidents. Yet limited research evaluating use of force training has been conducted and most has focussed on officer perceptions of training, as opposed to the impact of training on use of force in the field. We address this gap through evaluating a 120-h Response to Resistance and Aggression training developed and implemented by the Saint Paul Police Department. By integrating leverage-based control and de-escalation techniques, this program sought to reduce the severity of force used by police officers. Results from machine learning models indicate that training did reduce reliance on pain-compliance techniques. Adjusting for factors including encounter, subject, and officer characteristics, training was associated with an estimated 3.3 percentage point reduction in officer injuries and a 1.3 percentage point reduction in significant subject injury. These findings contribute to the evidence base surrounding effective police training programs.

Police’s Voice: A Need Analysis of ESP for Police Trainees in Malaysia

The research was to investigate the needs of the former police trainees at a local police training centre (PULAPOL) in Kuala Lumpur for the English course under the Basic Police Training Program (PLAK) in helping their policing tasks on the ground. This was a mixed-method study, employing both needs analysis survey and semi-structured interview as the instruments and were developed based on Hutchinson and Waters (1987)’s Target Needs focusing on Lacks, Wants and Necessities. This study involved 183 former police trainees who used to undergo police training at PULAPOL Kuala Lumpur before; Cadet Police Inspector (CP1) series one (1) and series two (2) 2019 who are now serving as the Inspector Officers (IOs) at various Royal Malaysia Police (RMP) departments nationwide. There were three main findings in this study; firstly, the former police trainees’ Necessities for the English course at PULAPOL were to perform their policing tasks on the ground and to speak with English-speaking clients when solving their problems. Secondly, their Lacks of knowledge in police terminology, grammar and speaking confidence limited their performance in the English course. In terms of Wants, they wished to learn all the English skills equally, but rejected the grammar teaching per say. The outcome of this study will aid the English coordinators at PULAPOL in revising the existing English course and developing a police-based English syllabus or English for Police Purposes (EPP) in accordance with the target needs of the police trainees.

Intercultural competence in the training and daily professional lives of police officers

This article explains the role of intercultural competence in the training and daily professional lives of police officers,and proposes ways to improve the acquisition of this competence. The goal is to describe intercultural competence,highlighting its importance and the possibilities for its acquisition in the training and professional everyday lives ofpolice officers. The article uses general scientific methods – analysis of scientific literature and documents, as well asthe induction–deduction method, drawing conclusions and making proposals, and (grammatical, historical, systemic,teleological) methods of interpretation of legal regulations, analysing applicable legislation and policy planning docu-ments. The study concludes that the daily work of the police in today’s environment requires good management andcultural awareness in dealing with residents, with the consequent development of intercultural competence amongpolice officers as a prerequisite for successful performance and cooperation with different communities in a multicul-tural society. The acquisition and development of intercultural competence should be included in police training pro-grammes, complementing professional standards as appropriate, and in professional development activities for policeofficers. At the same time, the structural changes in the State Police should be addressed, with responsible officersbeing identified to deal with culturally diverse populations, and professional models for police dealing with culturallydiverse populations should be developed.

Assessing Police Attitudes Toward Intervention in Gender Violence: the Role of Training, Perceived Severity, and Myths About Intimate Partner Violence Against Women

Abstract Purpose Even though evidence has broadly confirmed that public attitudes toward intervention shape the decision-making process when dealing with IPVAW events, rather less is known about what determines the police decision-making process. Research support that police attitudes toward intervention in IPVAW explain differences when police officers response to IPVAW events. This research analyzes the combined role of IPVAW myths, perceived severity, and IPVAW training in reactive (tolerance for IPVAW and minimal police involvement) and proactive (important police task and pro-arrest) police attitudes toward intervention in gender violence. Methods Drawing from snowball sampling, we collected responses of 211 Spanish police officers via online subject-recruitment platform. Results The main findings of our study confirmed that IPVAW myths lead to less proactive attitudes toward intervention both directly and through a reduction in the perceived severity of IPVAW. Importantly, we found a moderating role of IPVAW training, suggesting that the endorsement of IPVAW myths leads to less proactive responses, but only for untrained police officers. Conclusions Our findings suggest the importance of IPVAW training on police proactive attitudes toward intervention via IPVAW myths instead of perceived severity. Police training programs to both novice and experienced officers should be focused on confronting IPVAW myths in order to improve police perception, evaluation and involvement in gender violence events.

The Impact of the National Police Service (NPS) on Security Sector Reforms in South Sudan: A Case Study on the Ministry of Interior in South Sudan

The study's objective is to "examine the impact of South Sudan's National Police Service (SSNPS) on security sector reforms a case study of the Ministry of Interior." An empirical inquiry was looked at, and the study was developed as a case study. The researcher used questionnaires, interviews, and observation as the main data-gathering methods. There were 80 people there in total during the research, and 60 were randomly selected as the sample size. For the purpose of this study, descriptive statistics were generated by data analysis using SPSS version 20.0 (Statistical Package for Social Sciences). The data collection process employed both secondary and primary sources. The secondary responsibility was to evaluate already published works, such as books, essays, periodicals, journals, newspapers, and websites. The main methods for gathering data were questionnaires, observations, and interviews, and secondary data was also employed. The national police force of South Sudan has reportedly been able to successfully carry out the duties outlined in the SSNP Act 2011.The National Police Service must overcome a number of significant challenges before it can implement security sector reforms at the Ministry of Interior in South Sudan, according to the report, including the lack of excitement among police officers. The study analyzed published works and data collected through questionnaires, revealing that South Sudan's national police force successfully fulfils duties under the SSNP Act 2011 due to the Ministry of Interior's security sector reforms. However, challenges like lack of officer enthusiasm remain. Since 2005, South Sudan's security sector has faced challenges due to inadequate police training programs and low professionalization. Since independence in 2011, the sector has been characterized by brutality and political instability, impacting the nation's development.

Training Thai Police Cadets to Serve the Public via the Virtual Parents Training Program: A Study of the Royal Police Cadet Academy

Literature on police training reveals the lack of field training that incorporates community policing, the prevalence of the paramilitary structure among police training programs, and the support for the use of the andragogy approach in police training. The current study fills this gap by examining the virtual parents training program offered at the Royal Police Cadet Academy (RPCA) at the end of the academic year when each second-year cadet spent 15 days with their virtual parents in a rural area. The cadets helped their virtual parents do household chores and participated in other activities in the community. The RPCA’s goals are to instill strong character and good morals in the cadets. Overall, 264 cadets who participated in the survey reported that they were very satisfied with the program and believed the program both enhanced police image and made them less egocentric and more altruistic.

Why stay with the police? How meaningfulness in life moderates the mediated effects of role stressors’ appraisals on anxiety and intention to leave the State Brazilian Police

Brazilian police officers’ increasing levels of work anxiety and intention to leave the job are consistent with other police forces around the world. Among the important variables that appear to be antecedents of these unwanted organizational outcomes are increasing role stressors associated with police work. We conjecture that how police officers appraise stressors would affect whether adverse outcomes prevail. Specifically, stressors appraised as challenges result in weaker adverse outcomes compared with stressors appraised as hindrances. We also anticipate that a boundary condition that might further attenuate adverse outcomes is having meaningfulness in life (MIL). Likewise, having low MIL can intensify the potential adverse outcomes of stressors appraised as hindrances. This study aims to investigate how role stressors appraised as either challenges or hindrances may influence anxiety and intention to leave among state police officers in the Brazilian Federal District (DF), as well as implications of MIL as a moderator variable of these relationships. Our hypotheses supported the mediating effect of role stressors’ appraisals in their prediction of police officers’ anxiety and intention to leave their job, and the moderator effects of MIL in these same relationships. Findings are discussed in terms of changes in police regulations and training programs aimed at increasing officers’ MIL and coping strategies to redirect how they appraise role stressors as challenges rather than as hindrances, which may lead to a healthier work experience for DF State Police officers.

The state of legal regulation of home care by police in Ukraine

The article is devoted to the problematic issues of the quality of the police’s statutory tasks of protecting human life and ensuring their own safety.
 The article clarifies the normative origins of the police officer’s duty to provide home care to the victim at the scene, identifies some shortcomings in the legal regulation of police activities related to health care. Although a police officer is a person who does not usually have a medical education, the law requires him or her to acquire and use some kind of medical knowledge at work at the scene of the accident. There is a need to ensure the quality of relevant educational services to the subjects of relevant relations.
 Based on the analysis of relevant legislation, scientific and theoretical framework and educational practice on the research topic, a number of problematic aspects were identified, including: debatable application of the term “medical care” to non-medical education, internal inconsistency of legislation and regulations. The article focuses on some shortcomings of the normative content of police training programs under the First on the Event Program, which lead to irrational calculation of students’ training and instructor workload, and thus reduce its quality and efficiency, as well as inadequate organization of training. Critical assessment concerns the lack of a departmental police training program for home care, taking into account service needs and internationally recognized TESS standards. There are a number of recommendations and proposals to address these shortcomings that can be used in legislative activities.

International involvement in (re-)building police forces: a comparison of US and UN police assistance programs around the world

ABSTRACT The US and UN are two of the largest patrons of police reform programs worldwide: between 2000 and 2020, the US provided approximately $160 billion in police assistance to more than 130 countries worldwide; simultaneously, the UN spent over $77 billion supplying police-oriented security sector reform to countries experiencing or having experienced armed conflict, doing so through the deployment of peacekeeping missions and within the offices of UN Police, the UN’s hub for police reform and training programs. Though these two providers seek the same overall objective, they often vary in their specific goals: the US often engages in foreign police reform to promote its own national security objectives by increasing institutional capacity, while the UN adopts police reform programs to promote institutional constraint. The two models have important implications for how we understand bilateral and multilateral reform programs, including activities performed and recipient countries targeted across both time and space. Using originally collected data on US security assistance programs as well as a careful analysis of original data on UN mandates, this article provides the first quantitative exploration of these two different modes of assistance, comparing and contrasting their objectives and where, when, and how they are provided.

Integrity in the Singapore Police through the prism of anti-corruption programs: legal aspects

The article discusses the use of the category of integrity among Singapore police officers, as well as some aspects of the country's anti-corruption programs that are implemented and operate in conjunction with the rules of integrity and ethical conduct. Since, today in Ukraine, the issue of integrity in the police is becoming relevant, it becomes necessary to study foreign experience in this regard. In view of the above, it is suggested to pay attention to Singapore's experience in using the category of integrity, as it is in this country that both anti-corruption measures and measures aimed at maintaining integrity are successfully combined. The purpose of the article is to study foreign experience in maintaining integrity among police officers on the example of Singapore, which is valuable in the implementation of this category in the law enforcement agencies of Ukraine. The following methods were used: comparative law - to compare the legal provisions relating to integrity and anti-corruption activities; methods of logical and systematic analysis - to highlight the key points of anti-corruption measures in Singapore and maintain good behavior among police officers. Among the factors that support the good behavior of employees is an improved system of selection and recruitment for the police. Also, an important role is given to the process of training police officers. Attention is drawn to the Singapore police training program, which aims to create a negative understanding of corruption as a phenomenon in police officers. The value training introduced for the basic training courses is characterized by the fact that it contains information on the investigation of the actual cases of police officers accused in court of criminal offenses and corruption. Importantly, the Singapore Police Training Program focuses police awareness on the negativity of corruption.

Cops, Clinicians, or Both? Collaborative Approaches to Responding to Behavioral Health Emergencies.

How a community responds to behavioral health emergencies is both a public health issue and social justice issue. Individuals experiencing a behavioral health crisis often receive inadequate care in emergency departments (EDs), boarding for hours or days while waiting for treatment. Such crises also account for a quarter of police shootings and >2 million jail bookings per year. Racism and implicit bias magnify these problems for people of color. Growing support for reform provides an unprecedented opportunity for meaningful change, but solutions to this complex issue will require comprehensive systemic approaches. As communities grapple with behavioral health emergencies, the question is not just whether law enforcement should respond to behavioral health emergencies but how to reduce unnecessary law enforcement contact and, if law enforcement is responding, when, how, and with what support. This policy article reviews best practices for law enforcement crisis responses, outlines the components of a comprehensive continuum-of-crisis care model that provides alternatives to law enforcement involvement and ED use, and offers strategies for collaboration and alignment between law enforcement and clinicians toward common goals. Finally, policy considerations regarding stakeholder engagement, financing, data management, legal statutes, and health equity are presented to assist communities interested in taking steps to build these needed solutions.

Attitudes of Police Recruits Towards Offenders: the Impact of the Police Training on Attitudinal Change

The traditional prevailing perspectives on attitudes assume that attitudes, once formed, are relatively stable over time. However, research has revealed that attitudes may be influenced by different factors that may change them. The present pre-post-test study aims to understand if the police recruits’ attitudes towards offenders change after police training and analyse the impact of sociodemographic and personality variables on recruits’ attitudes towards offenders. The Attitude Scale towards Offenders (ATO) and the NEO-FFI Personality Inventory were used in a sample of 74 recruits of a Portuguese Police Force at the beginning and the end of the police training program. Results revealed that, at the end of the training, recruits hold more negative attitudes towards offenders. Those who had previous professional experience in the army hold more positive attitudes, but only at the beginning of the training. Only attitudes towards offenders at the beginning of the police training program predict recruits’ attitudes towards offenders at the end of the training. These results emphasize the importance of initial and continuous training of recruits and police officers.

Teamwork on Patrol: Investigating Teamwork Processes and Underlaying Coordinating Mechanisms in a Police Training Program.

The Big Five theory suggests that five components in teamwork are essential for team effectiveness in stressful environments. Furthermore, three coordinating mechanisms are claimed to be decisive to upholding and informing vital teamwork processes. Although much research has been conducted into the Big Five theory and its components, to the best of our knowledge, no study has yet been made of the relative importance of the three mechanisms and their impact on team effectiveness. Also, only a few studies have tried to investigate whether the components and the coordinating mechanisms are trainable. This study aims to make a theoretical contribution to the part of the theory focusing on the coordinating mechanisms. Secondly, it investigates whether training can improve team performance. Working in teams of two, 166 police officers participated in a simulated operational scenario. Correlational analyses indicated that all Big Five teamwork behaviors and coordinating mechanisms relate to external ratings of team performance. Only the mechanisms of Closed Loop Communication (CLC) and Shared Mental Model (SMM) predicted performance indicators, with SMM predicting above and beyond the effect of CLC. No effect of the training program was found. The study provides new evidence in a police situation that the most important coordinating mechanism of the Big Five theory is that of shared mental models, which in turn has consequences for the type of training needed.

Assessing the impact of the national police training program Blue Courage on officer attitudes toward mental and emotional wellness

PurposeOfficer wellness has become a popular area of focus in recent years. This purpose of this research is to examine the impact of a police training program, Blue Courage, on officer (n = 174) attitudes toward mental and emotional wellness.Design/methodology/approachBorrowing from the field of medicine, a data linkage approach is employed to match pre- and post-test surveys from officers who completed the training. This research uses a single-group pre-test post-test design to estimate the impact of the training, and a lagged dependent variable (LDV) ordinary least squares (OLS) model to compare the impact of the training across different types of officers.FindingsParticipants who completed the training had more positive attitudes toward mental and emotional wellness at post-test. Officers of higher rank and officers who worked in non-urban departments saw larger changes in attitudes toward wellness. Cynical officers, identified in the literature as withdrawing from training and failing to participate, saw comparable change in attitudes to less cynical officers.Originality/valueDespite a relative inability of wellness training to work with police officers historically, this research suggests that certain approaches employed by Blue Courage, specifically by targeting officer cynicism, may improve officer engagement in training and improve training results.

UNIVERSITY EDUCATION AS A MODERN EUROPEAN TREND OF INITIAL POLICE TRAINING

The article is devoted to the issues of police education reform. Modern countries have different models of initial police training, based on their historical traditions and modern conditions of functioning of states. The author explored the current situation of police training in England, focusing on the Initial Police Learning and Development Program (IPLDP), because this program was the main among all other police training programs, but now this program is outdated. The author revealed that the current trend in the world is to increase the role of higher education institutions in the education system for training police officers. The example of England and Wales shows that the system of initial training, which is based on short-term training at the level of the police academy with subsequent service in practical units, does not meet the needs of the time and is outdated. The global trend is to reorient police training from specific practical knowledge, skills and abilities to higher education and the formation of a person with critical thinking and analytical skills, which meets the current challenges facing the police in the fight against crime. The author argues that such training can be carried out only with the involvement of higher education institutions. As examples, some empirical studies confirm this fact. It is pointed out that it is very important for a modern police officer to perform not only a profession, but also an education in this field in order to perform his / her duties. The author analyzes the opinions of foreign researchers on the advantages of university education over training in police academies. The author touches on the issue of reforming police education in Ukraine in terms of introducing a three-level model of police training and proposes to conduct additional research on both modern foreign experience and the advantages, disadvantages and prospects of the proposed model.