How Fast Does the Cop Have to Be? Check your split-second decision abilities.

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In this video, we showcase the incredible speed at which decisions must be made in high-pressure situations as a police officer. We acknowledge that mistakes can happen, especially when split-second decisions are required. This video is not intended to endorse the use of excessive force or malicious actions by police officers, but rather to highlight the challenges faced in such situations.

In the video, an object in my hand may appear to be a gun or an unknown object. Waiting to identify it could have devastating consequences, as in certain situations, the use of force may be necessary to protect lives, even without knowing exactly what the object is. Factors such as body language and contextual cues can provide critical clues in such situations. For example, the way I was holding the stapler in the video was not consistent with the typical way one would hold a stapler, but rather a common way to hold a weapon.

It's important to note that when a police officer makes a mistake of facts, they should still be held responsible, but not necessarily criminally responsible if there was no criminal intent. In our opinion, the responsibility should primarily fall upon the agency or politicians that provided inadequate training or refused to grant funding for adequate training. Proper training is crucial in such high-pressure situations, as mistakes can be made in less than a second.

From a human performance perspective, angles play a crucial role in our ability to recognize and identify objects. When an object is viewed from a particular angle where its outline is not clearly visible, our ability to determine what it is becomes significantly impaired. As a result, we often rely on contextual cues within our environment and past experiences to help us determine the identity of the object. Our perception is also influenced by various factors within our environment and stimuli encountered within a specific time frame, which can prime us to recognize certain objects or patterns, even if they are not entirely visible or obvious.

Sources
Building a Cognitive Readiness for Violent Police–Citizen Encounters: A Task Analysis
DOI: 10.1002/piq.21288

Exploring Police Use of Force Decision Making Processes and Impairments Using a Naturalistic Decision-Making Approach DOI: 10.1177/0093854818789726

New Developments in Understanding the Behavioral Science Factors in the “Stop Shooting” Response. Law Enforcement Executive Forum. 2009, 9(4)

Police Officer Reaction Time to Start and Stop Shooting: The Influence of Decision-Making and Pattern Recognition. Law Enforcement Executive Forum. 2014, 14(2)

Thinking Fast & Slow by Daniel Kahneman

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[staggerdagger]

It's part of my personal beliefs (and libertarianism as a whole) that your rights end where another begins. Following that principle, I also apply it to human life. The second you make a threat or a perceived threat on another human life, you lose ALL rights to yours. You are putting both of your lives on the line, that is fair, that is equal. You may not come out with yours, that is the risk you take. No one has the right to infringe on another's life, but they do anyways regardless of laws or morals that society holds.

The force continuum applies to everyone, not just cops.

When someone decides to pull a gun on someone, cop or not, that's not a cop vs criminal. That's human versus human. The badge doesn't give them immortality nor does being the first to draw give a criminal certainty to live. It is a tossup. This is a great example, of, are you really willing to risk your life? Die if you're wrong? Or will you take the life of someone who already forfeited their right to theirs.

People can say "Oh it's a stapler, it's harmless" That's beyond the point. To the perception of an individual (cop in this case) someone is aiming a gun at them, and sometimes due to previous circumstances (nature of the 911 call especially) cops will be on edge. To the perception of the person, their life is in danger, the person is willingly portraying themselves as a threat on another's life. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

People like to believe all human life is equally valuable. In the grand scheme of things maybe, but that's a super convenient belief to hold until it comes down to the hard decisions. Your life becomes instantly worthless to me the instant you threaten mine or those I love. If you aren't prepared to make those hard decisions, then hopefully a nice and polite society protects you, part of that protection is LEOs.