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Force, Stress, and Decision-Making Within the Belgian Police: the Impact of Stressful Situations on Police Decision-Making

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Abstract

Stress and fear are inevitable aspects of the police job and may have a large impact on police officers’ decision-making process. Many studies have explored how stress and fear may influence assessments of police officers, especially with regard to the use of force. This article aims to contribute to this research domain by reporting the findings from two empirical studies among Belgian police officers: a quantitative study of police officers’ attitudes towards and experiences with the use of force and a qualitative study on the influence of stress and emotions on officers’ decision-making and assessment abilities and accuracy of shooting. Both studies confirmed that stress and fear are often present in Belgian police practice. One of the main findings is that Belgian police officers are anxious about the consequences of their actions because they know they will be held accountable for them. The pressure that results from this accountability can make it even more difficult for police officers to react to stressful situations. Therefore, we need to look for the right balance in this difficult position, by providing tools that support police officers in making daily decisions, and help them do their job as effectively as possible.

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Notes

  1. Including verbal force (e.g., as oral commands) as well as physical levels of force (e.g., grip techniques, the use of pepper spray, firearm).

  2. Examples are stress-related growth (Park et al. 1996), positive personal changes (Curbow et al. 1993), and a more careful or professional attitude and personal development (Laureys 2014).

  3. Participants had to engage in a short role play concerning a fake job interview, in which they were playing the supervisor who had to deal with a displeased citizen who was complaining about an incident with another police officer.

  4. In Belgium, there is one integrated police organization structured at two levels, the federal level and the local level. The local police consists of 187 police forces and guarantees day-to-day police matters on the local level. The federal police is organized per judicial district and is responsible for specialized matters or matters that exceed local boundaries. They both have to execute administrative as well as judicial police tasks.

  5. We would like to thank the organisation for giving us the opportunity to question all participants: 137 police officers, 77 soldiers and 21 employees of the Department of Waters and Forests. This article only discusses the results of the police officers.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Criminology, Criminal Law and Social Law, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium

    Antoinette Verhage, Jannie Noppe & Yinthe Feys

  2. Crime Control, Leuven, Belgium

    Eva Ledegen

Authors
  1. Antoinette Verhage
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  2. Jannie Noppe
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  3. Yinthe Feys
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  4. Eva Ledegen
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jannie Noppe.

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Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed Consent

Informed consent was obtained from all participants included in the study. Anonymity is guaranteed for all participants.

Appendices

Appendix I

Table 2 Overview of the characteristics of the survey respondents
Full size table

Appendix II: Topic List Qualitative Study

The interview started with a fictive case. You and your colleague are patrolling together daily in the city. It is a Friday night, you are both tired of your working week and your shift is almost over. You are looking forward to starting the weekend. The day went by smoothly; there were no incidents. Around 21h40, you and your colleague receive a call of a fight nearby. A quarrel exploded between two groups of youth and somebody got hurt. That is all the information you are given. Both you and your colleague imagined the end of this week differently. You arrive at the spot, it is dark. You do not know the building you are about to enter and have no idea about the number of youths that will be inside. You hear a shot, the door is slightly open…

Based on this case, the following questions were asked:

  • Describe how this situation makes you feel.

  • Do you have stress at such a moment? How would you describe the feeling of stress? Is this stress different from stress that is not job related?

  • What will you be looking out for in such a situation? What will you do?

  • Does the presence of weapons impact upon your reaction? How?

  • Does it make a difference if there are 2 or more (e.g., 10) perpetrators? Which impact does it have?

  • How does the absence of more information impact upon your decision(s)?

  • How will you handle the situation?

  • Are you willing to use force? Are you sufficiently prepared to use force, both mentally and physically during your training/career?

The next questions related to one’s personal experiences:

  • Do you remember similar incidents of your own experience? Would you like to walk me through your decisions from the moment the call came in: what time was it, what were you doing at the time of the incoming call, did you know the neighborhood/place where the situation was happening? Etc.

  • How did you feel in this situation?

  • How did your body react during violence-related incidents?

  • Did you experience fear/panic? If so, can you describe what you felt exactly (mentally or physically)? Did that fear have any positive consequences? If so, which ones?

  • How did you react during and right after the incident?

  • Which consequences were you faced with afterwards?

  • How did you deal with it?

  • Did you react in a way that you expected to react?

  • Did that fear/stress make you react differently (mentally or physically) or did you experience certain things (such as a higher heartbeat, tunnel vision, auditory exclusion,…)?

  • Did you expect these reactions?

  • When you realized that you could not avoid an escalated situation anymore, did you have sufficient self-confidence/confidence in your abilities to end the situation safely?

  • At the time that you were confronted with danger/violence, did you think about the consequences for the perpetrators and potential risks for your own safety?

  • Did you take laws/regulations into consideration? If so, which one(s)?

  • Have you ever used violence (self-defense, pepper spray, baton, or firearm)?

  • Did you experience stress while using force?

  • Were you disappointed in your own abilities?

  • Did you experience feelings of guilt afterwards? If so, why do you think you experience such feelings?

  • Did you have difficulty placing these situations into perspective?

  • Do you put such situations into perspective? How do you deal with it? What do you do?

  • Do you feel like you handled the situation well?

  • Would you have liked to react differently?

  • Have you ever had to point your firearm at someone?

    • If so, did you take the shot?

    • How did you feel?

    • Do you feel like you are sufficiently prepared, both mentally and physically?

  • How did the situation end?

  • Were you offered psychological assistance?

  • How would you react in the future?

  • Did these situations have an impact upon your work as a police officer and/or your private life?

  • Which measures do you think can be taken to avoid violence-related incidents?

  • In your opinion, is sufficient attention being paid to the mental side of using violence during trainings?

  • To your knowledge, was the situation analyzed afterwards with the aim of preventing certain situations in the future or to adapt training(s)?

  • Looking back at it, are you sufficiently prepared? Mentally and physically?

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Verhage, A., Noppe, J., Feys, Y. et al. Force, Stress, and Decision-Making Within the Belgian Police: the Impact of Stressful Situations on Police Decision-Making. J Police Crim Psych 33, 345–357 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11896-018-9262-4

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