Assessing law enforcement performance in behavior-based threat detection tasks involving a concealed weapon or device

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Forensic Science
• Law Enforcement Training

Background:

• Law enforcement officers frequently assess individuals for concealed weapons or devices.
• Accurate threat detection is critical for public safety and officer effectiveness.
• Previous research has not definitively established if specialized training improves detection accuracy.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare the accuracy of law enforcement officers and naïve controls in detecting concealed items.
• To investigate the influence of experience on threat detection performance among officers.
• To identify potential areas for improvement in officer training and assessment protocols.

Main Methods:

• Three experiments utilized signal detection and forced-choice paradigms.
• Participants assessed targets for concealed handguns or unstable devices.
• Performance metrics included accuracy and response bias.

Main Results:

• No significant differences in detection performance were found between law enforcement officers and naïve controls.
• Participants performed above chance levels in detecting concealed items.
• Increased years of experience among officers were associated with a bias towards perceiving concealment.

Conclusions:

• Current training or experience may not significantly enhance objective detection accuracy for concealed items.
• A bias towards perceiving threats may develop with experience, potentially impacting decision-making.
• Further research is needed to explore factors influencing detection performance, such as context and target characteristics.