Effect of intelligence collection training on suspicious activity recognition by front line police officers

This study examines the impact of InCOP1 – Information Collection on Patrol , a training course that adopts a behavior-based approach to the identification of suspicious activities and behaviors, on information collection by front-line police officers. For this research, we developed a web-based instrument situational awareness assessment instrument to evaluate empirically the individual judgments of police officers drawn came from a cross-section of American state, county, and municipal law enforcement agencies who previously completed InCOP1 training compared with those of officers who did not participate in that training. Study participants employed an 11-point Likert type scale to assess a series of subject matter expert-generated scenarios that emulated a mix of non-suspicious behaviors, generic suspicious behaviors, traditional criminal behaviors and terrorism-centric activities. The results based on 3036 individual judgments indicate trainees had enhanced ability to recognize suspicious activity (more true positives) when compared with officers who did not participate in InCOP1 training. This finding is consistent with criminology studies that suggest training affects police decision making generally and situational awareness specifically.