Train Officers to Make Better Decisions Under Pressure
Solutions for Law Enforcement
The Morning Commute: A Tactical Decision Game
You are a patrol officer working first shift in a densely populated city. It’s morning rush hour when you respond to a two-vehicle collision on a busy multi-lane highway. Upon arrival, you see a blue sedan sitting on the shoulder, completely off the roadway, with damage to the rear. The other vehicle, a black SUV with very little damage, is slightly on the shoulder but extends into the right travel lane, causing traffic to slow and merge around it. Vehicles are braking sharply and merging around it, creating a risk of another collision. No one appears to be seriously injured, and EMS has been dispatched but has not yet arrived.
As you approach the scene, a man and a pregnant woman are standing on the side of the road. You notice the woman wince and place her hand on her stomach. Before you say anything, the woman identifies herself as the driver of the SUV. A third person standing nearby on his cell phone overhears and interrupts:
“What? He was driving, not you!”
What do you do next?
What stood out to you in the situation above? The exercise highlights the importance of recognizing important cues, anticipating what could happen next, and making good decisions in the heat of the moment.
Officers who rehearse difficult decisions in low-stakes settings are better prepared when the stakes are real.
Interested in experiencing a live TDG?
TDGs challenge learners to make sense of a situation, decide what they would do, and explain their reasoning. Our team, led by John Schmitt, periodically runs interactive demonstrations for law enforcement. Enter your email to receive notices about upcoming sessions.
Solutions
ShadowBox offers several approaches for addressing law enforcement officer decision making.
Build Training Skills
- On-site or virtual workshops help your staff create and deliver cognitive skills training.
- Learn to turn real-world experiences into scenarios built around meaningful challenges and decisions.
- Prepare staff to facilitate scenarios effectively and draw out the right lessons.
Expert-Led Training Exercises
- Our facilitators lead officers through exercises designed to strengthen judgment and improve de-escalation skills.
- Deploy a variety of different formats of decision-making exercises, including ShadowBox exercises, tactical decision games, pause-point videos and matrix games.
- Choose from a library of ready-made law enforcement scenarios.
Custom Scenarios
- We develop scenarios that reflect your organization’s policies, geography, resources, and operating environment.
- We recommend bundles of six scenarios to support repeated training.
- Discounts are available for larger scenario packages.
Additional Solutions
- Training assessment and evaluation
- Informational talks and workshops
- Risk assessment exercises, including pre-mortems
- Consulting and training design support
- And much more…
Benefits to Officers
- Strengthen judgment in complex, real-world situations.
- Build confidence in explaining and articulating decisions.
- Learn how experienced officers recognize cues, weigh tradeoffs, and make decisions.
- Practice difficult decisions in a low-risk environment.
- Learn from different perspectives and approaches across the team.
Benefits to Departments and Organizations
- Build training that reflects your organization’s actual challenges, resources, and operating environment.
- Create a stronger shared understanding of good judgment and decision making.
- Capture and transfer the experience of seasoned personnel to officers with less experience.
- Foster a stronger cultural focus on how sound decisions are made.
- Identify differences in how staff interpret situations, policies, and risks.
ShadowBox equipped us with the internal capability to integrate decision-making reps directly into our daily shift briefings. This process has fueled continual professional development across our entire agency, elevating the quality of our officers’ critical thinking on the street.
-Chief James “Jay” Gerace, Colonie (NY) Police Department