Law enforcement worldwide is experiencing massive transformation at an unprecedented pace. Social, economic, physical, and cyber systems; terrorism; and the blistering rate at which technology is advancing add to the complex stew within which the world’s law enforcement and homeland security practitioners must navigate. As if on cue, the world’s plight with the COVID-19 pandemic has emerged to serve as a prime example of a rapidly shifting, morphing, and illusive complex problem. The rate at which the virus has spread worldwide is only one aspect of the impact it has had on first responders who have rallied to provide safety and security to their communities while simultaneously worrying about their own and their families’ health. Law enforcement leaders across the globe strive to stay informed as they encounter rapidly developing and often inaccurate or conflicting information. Leaders have had to hastily shift business models in terms of how their officers respond to calls for service; they’ve adjusted requirements for face-to-face organizational meetings, training sessions, and other routine conduct, often replacing these interactions with virtual alternatives. Critical decisions have been made in advance of anticipated impacts based on health and medical authorities’ models and advisories. Coupled with impacts that regions across the world have experienced only days prior, this need amplifies the urgency to recognize the problem to be addressed, decide, and act, leaving little time to strategize or consult with others. Entirely new ways of thinking and conducting business in public safety have and will continue to emerge, morph, and shift until what was once routine and customary may no longer be recognizable.
As if on cue, the world’s plight with the COVID-19 pandemic has emerged to serve as a prime example of a rapidly shifting, morphing, and illusive complex problem.
The impact of these rapidly changing environments has profound effects on officers’ health and wellness; coupled with the high demand for critical thinking, this situation requires higher order cognitive skills and the ability to focus one’s mind on desired outcomes while in the face of fear and ever-evolving, complex threat scenarios. Traditional law enforcement training is steeped in habitual practice and behaviors. While beneficial for many situations, it may inhibit an officer’s ability to respond effectively to morphing threats. In the last 25–30 years, the field of neuroscience has uncovered new ways of understanding how the human central nervous system responds under pressure and how the brain can be trained for enhanced future performance. Addressing this potential in law enforcement training can better equip officers with skills that enable them to adapt to mutating threat environments, as well as the inescapable emotional, physical, and mental health perils of the high-stress law enforcement lifestyle. Law enforcement leaders who become versed in these concepts can better prepare themselves and their officers for the unpredictable threats of the future.
Habit Versus Adaptability
Traditional law enforcement training is steeped in repetition with the express intent of instilling habits that will best serve officers under stressful conditions. As an example, instructors often use the phrase muscle memory to describe the repetitive motion of drawing from the holster and bringing the weapon to a gunpoint position in a consistently efficient and effective movement, thus reducing wasted motion or time when responding to a deadly threat. Similarly, arrest control techniques and defensive tactics must be practiced until they become second nature. The objective with critical skill development is to reach a level of proficiency (habit) where an officer reacts without having to think, inferring that having to think through the action will cause a delay in the response process and can result in injury or death to the officer or person being protected by an officer if faced with a deadly encounter where microseconds could mean the difference between surviving and dying.
However, law enforcement situations are becoming less and less predictable, and today’s officers face unprecedented levels of uncertainty, chaos, and ever-evolving complexity.
Rapid Assessment and Response
One need look no further than the increased incidents of active shooter and mass casualty terrorism events globally to understand the progressively unpredictable complexity and magnitude of these events. Responding officers and other first responders must rapidly evaluate mutating situations where numerous victims have been attacked, the situation remains unsecured or is still active, and lives hang in the balance. Many times, aspects of the attack are beyond what traditional training, policy, or procedures have covered; tactics of the attackers or impacts of the attacks may have never before been experienced. This requires not only a rapid assessment but a level of creativity that may be outside the scope of habitual preparedness. In most cases, officers have risen to the demand, saving lives.
Examples of in-the-moment critical decision-making beyond best practices at the time include the 2012 Century 16 Theater shooting in Aurora, Colorado, where fire and EMS resources were unable to transport the massive numbers of severely wounded victims—officers transported 27 victims in their patrol cars saving all who had survivable wounds; the 2016 ambush on five Dallas police officers requiring a rapid and creative tactic to stop the killer from an active and sustained attack by sending a remote-controlled robot armed with explosives to engage and stop the shooter; and the 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting where the shooter operated from high ground, requiring first responders to deploy rescue task forces for massive amounts of casualties, determine the origin of the gunfire, and assault the hotel room where the shooter was located. There are many other examples and the list continues to grow. While it is comforting to realize that first responders may be able to adapt within fractions of seconds to these types of volatile circumstances, the question arises: How can new knowledge about the human brain be integrated with current scientific trends in training to expand first responders’ capacity to innovate when necessary to master the morphing life-threatening scenarios?
Traditional aspects of law enforcement skills training have proven very effective for activities requiring rapid, mechanical responses, such as deadly force encounters, arrest control, weaponless defense, or emergency vehicle operations; however, it is not unusual to hear of officers who have been involved in a shooting to misreport or misrecollect aspects of the encounter due to auditory exclusion, narrowing field of vision, and other psycho-physiological impacts. While their physical performance may have been flawless, the cognitive impact is much more difficult to assess. Current law enforcement training primarily emphasizes training to respond to predictable, cause-and-effect linear processes. This is no longer sufficient in and of itself when another key capacity is sorely needed—the capacity for response flexibility. Today’s officers need the ability to quickly shift mind-sets, change perspectives, access intuition or gut response, and modify their approach to whatever is happening.
It’s clear that changing threat environments increasingly require assessment and response within microseconds. How can human brains handle this?
In the last 25–30 years, research in the field of neuroscience has expanded the understanding of how humans process incoming information. Specifically, scientists have gained important insights into how certain parts of the brain can be inescapably triggered during high-stress scenarios, as well as the long-term effect of such stress response to health and well-being. As an example, the region of the brain known as the amygdala includes the function of generating the survival response of fight, flight, or freeze when encountering a perceived threat. Under threat, the human body automatically produces adrenaline, cortisol, and other hormones that are key to enabling a quick escape or defensive response. This response is automatic, unconditional, and uncontrollable as survival is the biological imperative of this region of the brain; however, the lasting effects of repeated incidences of this chemical infusion include long-term physical and psychological harm.
The Invisible Deadly Threat
Increasingly, law enforcement officers are dying by their own hands. A disturbing trend as documented by BLUE H.E.L.P. shows that officer suicides have risen from 143 in 2016 to 228 in 2019.1 Further, one in every two law enforcement officers has experienced significant psychological trauma from one or a combination of multiple commonly faced events. As a result, it is estimated that 19–34 percent of active duty officers suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). While officers face situations one may immediately identify as traumatic such as death scenes and deadly force encounters, the key contributor to PTSD is stress. This includes the steady diet of stress from being vilified by the public; internal political stress from within the department; and shift work, which is also related to the lack of sleep.2
These statistics should serve as a wake-up call. There are already many effective programs, and treatment options with new approaches that address these issues are in development. Recognizing these factors, the Aurora, Colorado, Police Department has instituted a full-time wellness unit that offers all employees of the department a menu of health- and wellness-oriented products and services. This unit has partnered with the city of Aurora’s wellness program to bolster employee health and wellness initiatives designed for overall health, fulfillment, and productivity. Officers encounter high degrees of stress and even trauma in the day-to-day performance of their duties—and scientists now know far more about how the brain and central nervous system responds to these situations. It is time that this information be employed to actively support the health and well-being of officers to counter the impact of high-stress scenarios before, during, and after occurrence.
Complex Problems in the Field of Law Enforcement
The field of neuroscience is also providing important insight into new ways of rapidly assessing and responding effectively when faced with morphing scenarios or situations officers have never faced nor trained for. In law enforcement, as well as other socially based disciplines, conditions and environments shift, morph, and reestablish themselves in rapid and unpredictable ways. Police chiefs and sheriffs know all too well that crime patterns may quickly and unpredictably appear, and when solutions or tactics are applied, the original problem may morph into an entirely different problem. As an example, past efforts by law enforcement to address rising street crime brought about sharp criticism by the community, as well as civil litigation alleging unconstitutional practices. The examples of active shooter threats mentioned previously also serve as examples of complex problems. While there are ways to solve complex problems, these ever-changing threats cannot be viewed or solved in a linear fashion as can a math problem, where there is a defined, finite problem with a defined, finite solution.
In law enforcement, as well as other socially based disciplines, conditions and environments shift, morph, and reestablish themselves in rapid and unpredictable ways.
The neuroscience training needed for officers to effectively respond to these types of scenarios must be training that activates the region of the brain known as the pre-frontal cortex (PFC). Often referred to as the CEO of the brain, the PFC includes the decision-making, judgement center, and future orientation capabilities of the brain. The PFC considers all experience and adds the attributes of creativity, innovation, and adaptability. Officer training should include how to switch on the PFC whenever there is a need to adapt or face a complex situation.
Law enforcement training sometimes includes scenario training, wherein an academy instructor or field training officer quizzes recruits while they are focused on something else. Suddenly, the instructor will blurt out the trainees are to imagine that they have just been confronted by any number of unpredictable threats or scenarios. Next, they are challenged to recall where they are and to describe their location. They are continually asked: What will you do next, and next, and so on? Neuroscience suggests this can help people develop the capacity for situational awareness. Why? Because human brains cannot distinguish the difference between a well-imagined thought (the trainer’s made-up, but believable scenario) and reality. High-performance athletes know this principle well. Their training includes visualizing what certain aspects of the downhill ski course will be like or how one’s opponents will perform by watching their prior performance in films of previous games or matches. These athletes are training their brains to anticipate conditions and, in a manner of speaking, override the survival response that could interfere with enhanced future performance.
Complex problems, by their very nature, require moment-by-moment assessments; adjustments and readjustments; and, ultimately, the solution may never be achieved or guaranteed. Nonetheless, the pressure on law enforcement remains to solve the often-deep-seated social problems of the 21st century.
Neuroplasticity: Principle and Training Application
The human brain has the ability to shift, invent, and adapt in fractions of seconds based on creating newly formed neuropathways. What if this effect could be achieved with thought alone? Neuropsychologist Dr. Jess Miller suggests this “self-directed neuroplasticity,” is precisely what is possible and necessary for the “policing brain,” as she refers to it. In a 2017 article, she states:
One of the most powerful discoveries more recently has been that we can learn to re-wire our own brains using thought alone: without medication, without machinery, without any gifted genius or any “special qualities.”3
Described further, due to the nature of police work, officers’ brains are more efficient in some areas, but other key areas or functions suffer. There are two areas of the brain that work together to help people to navigate complexities, stress, and emotional trauma: the amygdala and the hippocampus. Over time, the hippocampus becomes damaged by the very trauma it is attempting to alleviate. This damage reduces or eliminates one’s ability to compartmentalize emotional trauma in terms of time and space, so that difficult memories are less likely to be appropriately categorized as having occurred in the past.4
Intuition and Following Your Gut
Neuroscience has also provided new perspectives into what might have been previously referred to as trusting one’s “gut” or intuition; that enigmatic process that academy instructors tell their recruits to rely upon. The idea is that if something triggers a sense there’s something off or wrong about a situation, there probably is. The central nervous system is constantly taking in, assessing, and storing information. Even though one might not be fully conscious of the incoming data, gut response or intuition can be a reliable tool when responding to complex scenarios and making quick decisions.
Recently, a team of researchers including psychological scientists Galang Lufityanto, Chris Donkin, and Joel Pearson from the University of New South Wales defined intuition as the influence of nonconscious emotional information from the body or the brain, such as an instinctual gut feeling or sensation.5 In their study, the researchers conducted a series of experiments that effectively demonstrated the presence, consistency, and efficacy of the intuitive response. Accordingly, the experiments also demonstrated that, just as people can train to become more effective at decision-making when they practice using their logic and reasoning, they may also train themselves over time to become more capable of using their intuition and knowing when to trust their gut.
New Thinking: The Conflict and the Potential
If law enforcement is to embrace neuroscience with all its magnificent potential, the profession must also embrace the new (and perhaps undetected) ways of thinking that may shatter the traditional organizational foundations.
.The task of incorporating these neuroscience findings into training seems daunting; nevertheless, there is promise. First, it must be acknowledged that there is an inherent conflict between the traditional notion of the hierarchical command and control of law enforcement organizations and the concepts discussed here. However, the authors suggest that the increased complex nature of the threat environment has created a need for leaders and trainers to educate themselves on the endless potential of the human brain and its applications to complex adaptive environments—and that officers must be trained to adapt in a moment of crisis, and act. This may result in new ways of thinking and responding. It may also challenge legal precedence, policy, and procedure. Yet, in any socially based arena, this is precisely how new levels of performance and results are created. If law enforcement is to embrace neuroscience with all its magnificent potential, the profession must also embrace the new (and perhaps undetected) ways of thinking that may shatter the traditional organizational foundations that are currently potentially hampering the application of neuroscience training in law enforcement.
Creating the Way Forward
The future invites promising outcomes. With an awakening acceptance of wellness principles by law enforcement as a legitimate concept; the unavoidable complexity of the 21st century and its morphing threats and challenges; and the increasing, inescapable health-related pitfalls officers face, the elements to provide education and relief have aligned perfectly. It will, however, require a whole community–type organized effort much like the traditional law enforcement practices and the countering violence initiatives of the recent past. Those from law enforcement, neuroscience, the health profession, and higher education (curriculum design) will need to collaborate to pool the required resources to effect the needed change in this realm.
On January 22, 2020, Executive Order 13896 established the Presidential Commission on Law Enforcement and the Administration of Justice. Among other issues to be focused on, the commission is delving into major issues affecting the physical safety and mental health of police officers. This could serve as a pivotal opportunity to not only understand the multilayered contributing factors discussed herein, but also to coalesce the needed resources to effect the necessary change as examined.6 d
Notes:
1 Joel Shannon, “At Least 228 Police Officers Died by Suicide in 2019, Blue H.E.L.P. Says,” USA Today, updated January 7, 2020.
2 Amaury Murgado, “How to Spot PTSD in Yourself,” POLICE Magazine, June 19, 2019.
3 Jess Miller, “Bringing Neuroscience to Policing,” Oscar Kilo (blog), July 28, 2017.
4 Miller, “Bringing Neuroscience to Policing.”
5 Galang Lufityanto, Chris Donkin, and Joel Pearson, “Measuring Intuition: Nonconscious Emotional Information Boosts Decision Accuracy and Confidence,” Psychological Science 27, no. 5 (May 2016): 622–634.
6 Exec. Order No. 13896, Presidential Commission on Law Enforcement and the Administration of Justice (October 28, 2019); U.S. Department of Justice, “Statement from Attorney General Barr on the Establishment of the Presidential Commission,” January 22, 2020.
Please cite as
Anne McGhee Stinson and Sam McGhee, “Harnessing New Perspectives:Employing Neuroscience to Strengthen Public Safety Effectiveness,” Police Chief Online, May 13, 2020.
