Advancing police professionalism on the front lines with experiments and experience

Abstract

We juxtapose two different visions for police reform, one based on programs and scientific experiments, the other on street-level practices and experience. Our purpose is to consider a closer marriage between them. To this end, we have outlined a training model based on the police craft, and designed to help patrol officers reflect mindfully on the numerous and varied situational factors that characterize mundane but perplexing encounters with the public. This model is inspired by the Aristotelian concept of perception or discernment. Its focus is not on outcomes but on decision-making processes that lead to choosing well in the kind of complex and uncertain environment of everyday police work.