As an experienced investigator, a national investigations trainer and a court certified expert witness I have been directly involved in or analyzed and evaluated scores of use-of-force investigations. Not surprisingly, a dominant mantra I consistently notice investigators repeating is, "What happened?" That's a critical question, of course, but if ...

Cops are super-humans. They can override the inherent limitations of their minds and bodies because they've been trained to do so. They can move quicker, think faster and see, hear and remember more than any other category of human. In fact, it wouldn't be right to measure their behavior and performance against the standards "normal" humans would b...

Articles generate thought, thoughts provoke discussions, discussions catalyze improvement. This commentary highlights some points from the article, "Lessons on Leadership ~ Making the worst ship in the Navy the best ship" (Abrashoff, 2022) linked below. Focus of this article After reading Michael Abrashoff's "Turning the worst ship in the Navy into...

How do we best extrapolate training from the video evidence of a critical incident?  Simply stated, when we review a video and we do not have all of the facts and data regarding why the behavior we see is unfolding, we "critique" the actions of those players in the video.  As trainers, we have to establish "RCA"  after a full analysi...

Consistency in a critical incident is often lost in the unpredictable actions of others and the infinite number of possible responses by the officer.   Gathering factual data is the focus; the interview process must be conducted with deep communication skills, i.e., thoughtful open-ended questions, and deep open-minded listening.The interview ...

Use of Force; Policy Matters (pre and post-incident) : As a Use of Force instructor for the past several years, as well as an expert in human factors and an experienced video analyst, I have seen first-hand the critical differences between the intended purpose of a policy and how that policy is actually applied in the aftermath of a critical incide...

Critical Incident Review  FISCI_CHECKLIST.pdf - Google Drive The draft of the Human Factors Check list is a living document.  Please leave thoughts and ideas you have regarding the use of the  Check-List for others to gain  from all of the experience and application regarding the use of the tool. https://drive.google.com/file/d/...