Physiological stress differentially impacts cognitive performance during-and memory following-simulated police encounters with persons experiencing a mental health crisis

Police officers frequently make decisions under stress and require accurate memories of their perceptions and actions for subsequent investigations. Recognizing that police are frequently called to assist people experiencing a mental health crisis, it is of critical importance to public safety to understand the role of stress on officers' cognition when navigating such encounters. Despite this, how the timing of experiencing stress impacts officer cognition is understudied in applied police contexts and therefore remains unclear. To address this gap in the literature, we analyzed data from a study of 57 police officers who wore heart rate monitors to record physiological arousal before, during, and after two reality-based scenarios (i.e., simulated calls for service) with individuals experiencing mental distress. Scenarios were audio-recorded, transcribed, and coded to measure officers' perceptual memory of important elements in each scene, procedural memory to enact best practices, post-incident memory of their own actions, and higher-level situational understanding. We found a nuanced relationship between the timing of stress and cognitive performance, such that higher heart rate before and during scenarios improved understanding, decision making, and the appropriate choice of use of force option, but at the expense of officers' spatial processing. Increased heart rate during the post-incident debrief was associated with the following: making a lethal force error during the scenario, decreased memory for perceptual aspects of the scenario, and impaired recall of one's own actions. Older and more experienced officers exhibited overall lower physiological arousal, and female officers demonstrated better cognitive performance compared to male officers. These results have practical implications in operational, training, evaluation, and testimonial police contexts and can inform future interventions aimed to improve outcomes when navigating stressful encounters, including crisis intervention.

Spatial patterns of Mental Health Act apprehensions in Toronto, Canada, 2014-2022

OBJECTIVES

This research examines the temporal rates and spatial patterns of police-involved Mental Health Act (MHA) apprehensions in Toronto, Canada, from 2014 to 2022. Building from the work of Toronto Police Services (TPS), the goal of this research is to deepen our understanding of MHA apprehensions and provide insights which may be used to guide local mental health reform efforts.

METHODS

Using data collected by TPS, an exploratory, descriptive analysis of spatial patterns of MHA apprehension events between 2014 and 2022 at the neighbourhood level was conducted. To identify high-rate clusters, we used a discrete Poisson model in SaTScan, with a circular moving window. Primary and secondary clusters with a relative risk of 1.5 or greater are reported.

RESULTS

From 2014 to 2022, 93,932 MHA apprehensions occurred in Toronto. Apprehension rates were found to vary substantially between neighbourhoods, with approximately 91% of Toronto's 140 neighbourhoods experiencing a net positive increase in rates during the study period after adjusting for population growth. Repeated spatial cluster analysis for each year revealed a range of 4 to 7 clusters annually, with the downtown core consistently emerging as an area of elevated risk (RR range 1.58-1.99).

CONCLUSION

Rising MHA apprehensions within Toronto highlight the pressing need to confront the city's intensifying mental health needs. These findings offer valuable insights into the patterns and nature of police-involved MHA apprehensions, outline reproducible analysis methods that can be used by others, and support targeted evaluation, expansion, and implementation of downstream initiatives to improve mental health responses.

The International Performance, Resilience and Efficiency Program Protocol for the Application of HRV Biofeedback in Applied Law Enforcement Settings

Law enforcement officers are routinely exposed to high-threat encounters that elicit physiological stress responses that impact health, performance, and safety. Therefore, self-regulation using evidence-based approaches is a priority in police research and practice. This paper describes a five-module heart rate variability biofeedback (HRVB) protocol that is part of a larger resilience program (the International Performance Resilience and Efficiency Program - iPREP) established in 2014. Supported by 10 years of user-informed research and development, our methods are tailored to address occupational stressors and the practical realities of training and resource availability in operational settings. Building on existing clinical methods that comprise five to six weekly sessions and up to 40-min of daily practice, our iPREP HRVB protocol is typically delivered in a condensed format across 2-3 days and is seamlessly integrated with reality-based training scenarios commonly employed in policing. By combining best practices in clinical HRVB with police-specific pedagogical frameworks, officers receive accelerated and job-relevant training to adaptively modulate autonomic responses to acute and chronic stress. Efficacy of the iPREP HRVB protocol is supported by several research studies of various methodological designs (i.e., randomized control trial, longitudinal cohort) that demonstrate immediate and sustained improvements in police performance and physiological health outcomes. We conclude with a critical appraisal of the available empirical evidence contrasting common and emerging breathing techniques proposed for use in operational policing contexts. The critical appraisal guide is intended to serve as a resource for law enforcement agencies, governing bodies, and operators when choosing appropriate and effective self-regulation training approaches.

Developing Community Co-designed Scenario-Based Training for Police Mental Health Crisis Response: a Relational Policing Approach to De-escalation

Using the current empirical landscape of police responses to people in mental health crisis as a backdrop, this methods paper makes an argument for the central role of collaborative co-design and production by diverse community experts and stakeholders to build transformative specialized training for frontline officers. Subject matter experts (SMEs) from across key domains participated in focus groups and curriculum creation, with outputs being the co-development of a conceptual approach and an innovative experiential learning training program. Part 1 unpacks the team's conceptual development of a relational policing approach. This humanized method is shaped by procedural justice, trauma-informed, person-centred, and cultural safety frameworks. Part 2 details the co-production of a novel problem-based training method for a police service in Southern Ontario, Canada. The program centres on the acquisition of core competencies related to relational policing, de-escalation, and mental health crisis response. The training was designed to bring learners through a spectrum of authentic crisis scenarios: from observer-participant scenarios informed by Forum Theatre methods and targeted SME feedback to a range of high-fidelity assessment simulations that test officers' abilities to effectively communicate, de-escalate, and make decisions under stress. This program offers repeated opportunities for officers to practice alternative crisis management strategies in scenarios that might otherwise result in the use of force.