Primed to Use Force? A Systematic Review Examining the Relationship Between Tactical Experience and Use of Force

Significant concerns have been raised about the use of tactical officers, who are suggested to be predisposed to use force—particularly deadly force—when interacting with the public. Given this, we conducted a systematic review of research that compares the decision-making of officers with tactical experience and those without tactical experience (i.e. patrol and recruits). Specifically, we examined the following research questions: (1) across officers who received different training (i.e. officers with tactical experience and officers without tactical experience), are there differences in use-of-force decision-making (e.g. reaction time and decisions to use force)?; and (2) what cognitive processes explain any differences in decision-making (e.g. gaze control and mental models)? Using the PRISMA guidelines we conducted a systematic literature review in which six databases were used to identify articles. Of the 388 articles that were screened, we conducted a narrative synthesis of 10 studies and found that tactical officers are not only able to make more accurate decisions to use deadly force but are also able to make those decisions faster than officers without tactical training. The enhanced decision-making observed in tactical officers was largely explained by where tactical officers fixate their gaze during unfolding scenarios, as well as an enhanced ability to predict how a situation will unfold. Based on our findings, tactical officers are not primed to use (deadly) force as has been suggested. We call for more research that explores the decision-making processes of tactical officers and the extent to which they have expertise in managing potential use-of-force encounters.