Decision-Making Training for Frontline Police Officers: Effects on Situational Awareness and Team Behavior

Frontline police officers frequently face ambiguous and high-pressure situations requiring rapid decision-making under uncertainty. Traditional police training often emphasizes procedural and tactical skills, neglecting cognitive competencies such as situational awareness (SA) and shared mental models (SMM). This study investigates whether a brief, theoretically grounded decision-making training program can enhance SA and team behavior among regular and SWAT-type police officers during simulated arrest scenarios. A quasi-experimental 2 × 2 factorial design was employed, involving 166 police officers (category 3: SWAT-type; category 4: regular patrol). Participants were assigned to either a training group (n = 54) or a control group (n = 112). The training program consisted of three modules focusing on decision-making frameworks, scenario-based exercises, and group debriefings. SA was measured using the Situational Awareness Rating Scale (SARS), and team behavior was assessed by subject matter experts during ambiguous and non-ambiguous simulated scenarios. Statistical analyses included factorial ANOVAs and planned comparisons. Trained officers demonstrated significantly higher SA scores than untrained controls (F(1, 162) = 12.587, p < 0.000). SWAT-type officers outperformed regular officers in SA and team behavior across scenarios. A training effect on team behavior was observed only among regular officers in the ambiguous scenario (F(1, 81) = 6.66, p < 0.012). No training effect was found in the non-ambiguous scenario. Effect sizes ranged from small to medium, with the strongest impact observed in SA and ambiguous decision-making. Brief decision-making training improved SA across both officer categories and enhanced team behavior in ambiguous scenarios for regular officers. These findings support the integration of scenario-based, cognitively focused training in police education to better prepare officers for complex operational environments.