“However, police-specific situation awareness has not been studied before and my experience as a firstline officer (almost 25 years) and trainer has convinced me that we need to understand what situational awareness in police work is and how it can be formed”. (Juha-Matti Huhta)
Juha-Matti Huhta is ‘Komisario I Chief Inspector’ at Police university college of Finland. Hij schreef het leerzame artikel ‘Deriving Expert Knowledge of Situational Awareness in Policing’ (1). Het doel van de studie is nieuwe inzichten te verkrijgen over hoe agenten expertise kunnen ontwikkelen in politie werk specifieke Situational Awareness (SA). Thematische analyses onthulden een expertmodel van SA dat kan worden gebruikt als raamwerk voor het ontwikkelen van evidence-based politietraining. Ik had het genoegen hem er een paar vragen over te kunnen stellen!
“For situational awareness to be taught, it must be understood, defined, and in a way that is sufficiently concrete for teaching and learning. If a rookie is given the instruction that “Be situationally Aware” or “Observe”, there is little chance for him/her to understand what he/she should concretely do” (Juha-Matti Huhta)
What is SA and why are you investigating this?
I personally understand situational awareness (SA) as an individual’s ability to recognize what is happening right now and how a situation can develop. I have been a police officer for almost 25 years and in my experience this knowledge is needed to develop police training. So far, situational awareness related to operational policing has not been studied at all.
What did you want to find out and why?
I wanted to find out exactly what SA means in operational situations for the police. This knowledge has not existed before and for the development of education we (the police) need researched scientific knowledge to understand this phenomenon.
Police training has focused on various police tactics and there has always been a lot of talk about the importance of decision-making. In fact, however, we cannot make decisions unless we understand the current situation and this understanding is formed through the SA.
However, police-specific situation awareness has not been studied before and my experience as a firstline officer and trainer has convinced me that we need to understand what situational awareness in police work is and how it can be formed.
Based on this situational awareness, we can choose suitable Tactics alternatives and base all other decision making on this genuine understanding, i.e. what is going on now and how the situation can develop. To be able to teach situational awareness, first we must be able to define what it is.
Often police activity is assessed based on the outcome, this has also been the case in part in Police Training. This means that the action is considered to have been good or weak based on what the outcome of the situation/performance has been. However, this does not necessarily say much about the actual performance. A good outcome can be achieved by accident, chance, and even by acting incorrectly. On the other hand, there may have been a lot of good in a bad outcome and, for example, only the last decision may have been wrong, or out of the officer’s control and good SA and decision-making occurred.
For situational awareness to be taught, it must be understood, defined, and in a way that is sufficiently concrete for teaching and learning. If a rookie is given the instruction that “Be situationally Aware” or “Observe”, there is little chance for him/her to understand what he/she should concretely do.
The seven elements
For this reason, the seven elements revealed by the study are particularly important and the first concrete elements identified systematically through the experiences of highly trained expert officers and instructors, and of my own experience, that can be used in understanding the phenomenon and teaching the related situational awareness skills.
How you conducted this study (method)
I presented 13 police work situations on the screen and asked each picture/situation, two questions. The conversation was recorded with a voice recorder and later transcribed verbatim. In data analysis, we look for themes.
What are the main results and how can this be applied in police training?
The study revealed a model used by experts to search for critical information, in which experts assessed the situation using seven elements. In the future, these seven elements can be taught to police students. The goal is to get students to learn the methods used by experts to form situational awareness already during training.
The OODA cycle is also about SA: why do you need other models (such as Endsley)?
I used Ensdley’s concept of situational awareness in this study because I think it’s so clear. Of course, no concept in itself yet makes this a concrete teaching tool, or specific to police operations and situations.
What is the difference between beginners and experts?
Experts use these seven elements to form situational awareness. Novices did not, and naturally were not able to form, a very concrete idea of what is going on now, how the situation can develop or how could they influence the course of the situation.
Is there a difference in viewing behavior between beginners and experts based on eye tracking?
Yes – experts look at suspects’ hands faster and earlier in their search patterns, which provides important information about what could happen next, and what the suspect might have access to.
What is flexecution and how can we train it in police training?
Personally, I understand it to be a theoretical model for us to be able to act without always looking for the most optimal way to act, but we learn to accept that sometimes it is worth deciding on a course of action, even if we understand that this is not the most optimal. So let’s adopt a course of action that is “good enough.” In police training, this could mean learning to accept the particularly challenging and quick nature of police work, sometimes forcing us to settle for a good solution, not just perfect ones.
Best regards, Juha-Matti
- Huhta, JM., Di Nota, P.M., Hietanen, T. et al. Deriving Expert Knowledge of Situational Awareness in Policing: a Mixed-Methods Study. J Police Crim Psych (2023).