Force Encounters

Understanding Human Performance During Critical Incidents

The definition of use of force and its application are controversial issues that have confounded researchers and police departments for the better half of two centuries. Now, using sound scientific principles, we are finally able to analyze and determine a multitude of related factors. With the affirmation of Graham v. Conner (1989) by the Supreme Court, we currently have a legal standard dictating that “police force at any level can be justified so long as the officer is acting like other reasonable officers given the same set of circumstances.” The question still remains: What is reasonable?

California Training Institute has developed a practical and understandable course on Force Encounters Analysis, based on unbiased scientific evidence pertaining to officer involved use of force (UOF). The primary goals of the program are to encourage LE professionals to apply ground-breaking concepts revealed in force science research when engaging in force encounters, and when investigating, reconstructing, recalling or otherwise analyzing a UOF incident. Concepts include reactions times, perceptual distortions, narrowed vision, language limitations, & memory gaps. Force Encounters Analysis will expand knowledge of clear-cut, scientific evidence including biomechanical & cognitive elements.

The course work will identify physical and psychological phenomena associated with human behavior and demonstrate how it can impact performance under stress. Our research focuses on the dynamics of human performance, kinesiology & psychophysiology, particularly connected to the line officer. The science of human dynamics in the midst of a high-stress encounter is information not generally covered in the criminal justice research available. Our course work will help build a bridge between the latest academic research and the law enforcement environment.

Force Encounters Analysis will expand an individual’s knowledge of clear-cut, scientific evidence to include biomechanical and cognitive elements and will strengthen his or her analytical skills. In short, participants will better understand how human beings perform in force encounters and the implications this may have for their investigations.

Topics include some of the most controversial force issues, including:

• Why might statements conflict with forensic evidence? How perceptual distortions & stress-induced memory gaps impact accurate recall.
• Why are suspects shot in the back by well-trained officers making valid decisions? Scientific facts about force science speed studies & the truth about time: How long it really takes to start – and stop – shooting.
• How investigators can best ‘mine’ officers’ memories in a post-incident interview and avoid common interviewing mistakes that can put the officer, the investigator and the entire department in jeopardy. Force Encounters Analysis training is essential to a good investigation, as it develops an understanding of how to ask the most effective questions.
• How to analyze vital elements of a controversial use of force that are often overlooked.
• What ready position is really best for reducing reaction time in an armed encounter?
• Why officers in high adrenalin confrontations continue to fire after the threat has ended.
• Facts about force science speed studies and how quickly suspects can launch an attack as opposed to an officer who must take the time to determine threat before a taking action.

What a course participant will come to understand during Force Encounters training are the critical hidden truths about the physical and mental dynamics of life-threatening events, particularly officer-involved shootings. The findings delivered in our course material have been directly credited with saving officer lives on the street and with preventing some officers from being unfairly convicted of criminal use of deadly force.

The course is relevant for a wide range of law enforcement professionals including, but not limited to:

• Sworn Officers
• SWAT
• Force Investigators
• Managers and Supervisors
• Use-of-force Trainers
• Critical Incident Teams
• Police Psychologists
• Internal Affairs

Course Terminal Learning Objectives

At the completion of this course participants will be able to:

1. Explain the physiological, perceptual, and cognitive factors that officers encounter in a force situation.
2. Analyze and investigate a lethal force encounter and explain the human factor forensics involved.
3. Predict an officer’s and suspect’s reaction time and the biomechanics of lethal force encounters.
4. Be better able to conduct a more thorough interview with officers involved in force encounter situation.
5. Describe the components of the nervous system and explain the role they play a role in our behavior.
6. Describe how fear (threat) is processed by the nervous system and how the components of the Limbic System communicate with each other to deal with the threat.
7. Describe the fight or flight response triggered by the Limbic System and the basic positive and negative effects on the physiological, perceptual, and cognitive systems.
8. Describe the relationship between stress and arousal.
9. Describe the relationship between arousal and attention.
10. Describe the concept of hormonally induced heart rate and be able to predict performance given a specified heart rate.
11. Describe the physiological, perceptual, and cognitive problems we experience under stress.
12. Describe or predict the level of impairment due to fatigue.
13. Describe how we make decisions in normal situations vs. under stress.
14. Understand the basic principles of total response time, including its components and the factors that affect those components.
15. Understand that reaction time is a subset of those components that make up total response time.
16. Understand the limits of human reaction time in order to judge our own performance and that of others based on what we can do in fractions of a second.
17. Understand the biomechanics and timing of shooting from different positions for both officers and suspects.
18. Using this information compare an officer’s response time to a suspect’s initiation of a gunfight   to determine the probability of a successful encounter.
19. Describe how we remember information.
20. Understand how officers recall information from an OIS situation during an interview.
21. Understand the factors to consider when conducting an OIS interview.
22. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the traditional police interview versus the cognitive interview.

Instructor Craig E. Geis

Certified Force Science Analyst, Craig E. Geis, is Co-Founder of California Training Institute. Craig has extensive background in error and risk management and has been an instructor for California POST since 2003 on the subject of Human Factors Threat & Error Management. Mr. Geis was a career army pilot, developed the military’s Team Resource Management (TRM) training program to address human error, and is a former instructor for the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, Embry Riddle Aeronautical University, University of Maryland, and the University of San Francisco. He has served as an Associate Professor at the University of Southern California, providing instruction in numerous courses on Safety Management and Human Factors. Craig holds an M.A. in Psychology from Austin Peay State University, a B.A. in Management from C.W. Post College in New York, and an MBA in Management from Georgia Southern College.