Goal Conflict and Decision Making in Police Encounters with Suicidal Subjects

• In Event: Decision Making and Behavioral Economics: Peers, Situations and Police

Abstract

Using an experimental design, we test the role of goal conflict in police decision-making during encounters with suicidal subjects. With the increased attention on the police response to encounters with armed citizens, some have advocated for and many departments use a “priority of life” decision tool that is supposed to help officers triage the value of their own lives in comparison with potential victims, innocent bystanders, and armed suspects. This in turn, it is argued, should help officers to make decisions about the level of jeopardy they are willing to assume and/or place someone else in during a given encounter. Armed suicidal subjects could fit into at least two of the current “priority of life” categories and each would seem to require a dramatically different law enforcement response. This type of goal conflict has been shown to increase error and bad outcomes in other high risk professions. Our study seeks to examine how experienced police officers prioritize suicidal subjects (resolve the conflict) and how this effects subsequent decision-making and outcomes. The results have implications for theory on criminal justice decision-making, policy, and training.

Authors

• Danielle Reynolds, University at Albany / Finn Institute for Public Safety

• Paul Taylor, University at Albany, SUNY

• Theodore Wilson, University at Albany, SUNY