Preparing for the Real World Encounter: Representative Learning Design in Police Use-of-Force Training

The use of legitimate force and the possibility of an armed or unarmed confrontation is an integral part of the police profession. Recent studies investigating police officers` self-defense and arrest skills suggest that corresponding training measures need to be optimized. Especially demanding for use-of-force coaches is the decision as to which training activities to use for the best possible transfer of learned skills from the training to the real world context. One recommendation in the law enforcement literature is to design training more realistically.

The current presentation argues that the term `realistic training` should be abandoned in the context of law enforcement training for two reasons. First, it is imprecise in its use, and second, due to its unidimensionality, there are ethical concerns regarding health and safety if training equals real world incidents. Instead, we argue to focus on a representative learning design in the training context. We propose the trade-off model for simulation design (TOMSD) as a tool that allows for more precise and goal-directed variations of training activities by the use-of-force coach.

Further directions of representative learning design in the context of law enforcement will be discussed.