Can Technology Reduce Lethality in Law Enforcement?

Managing incentives for pre-emptive use of deadly force

Photo by Erik Mclean on Unsplash

As a former municipal employee, I availed myself of a considerable volume of workplace training and development. As a second language learner, I once spent a ten-month period in immersive French language training. As any student of classroom language learning will tell you, the success of the experience lies with the students and their predisposition to opening up, building trust, and speak freely. In this session, I was placed almost exclusively with a class of law enforcement officers.

Facilitated by our instructor, we incrementally developed a climate of being comfortable and supportive, knowing we would be making speech and grammatical errors in front of each other. As human nature would have it, we got to know each other over time.

In conversation one day, I mentioned to the officers present that I had once applied to the police service and passed the entrance exam. I was eventually screened out for not having the minimum standard for uncorrected vision. The officers explained that field police work required that standard. They cited cases where field officers spotting something out of the corner of their eye was central to foiling child abductions and other crimes.