The Impact of Training on Use of Force by Police in an English police force; Evidence from a Pragmatic Stepped Wedge Randomised Controlled Trial

TY - JOUR

T1 - The Impact of Training on Use of Force by Police in an English police force; Evidence from a Pragmatic Stepped Wedge Randomised Controlled Trial

AU - Sanders, Michael

AU - Bancroft, Kate

AU - Hume, Susannah

AU - Chetwynd, Oliver

AU - Quinton, Paul

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group on behalf of Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences.

PY - 2024/10/4

Y1 - 2024/10/4

N2 - We aim to test the impact of a new national curriculum for public and personal safety training (PPST) developed by the College of Policing, which aims to reduce the use of force by police. We conduct a large-scale Stepped Wedge Pragmatic Controlled Trial with a single police force and 1843 participating police officers. Officers were assigned to be trained during a particular week of the year. We find statistically significant reductions in the use of force by police officers as a result of the training. These effects are a reduction of between 8.0% and 10.9% in the propensity to use force in a given week compared to the counterfactual. The effect is accompanied by a significant reduction in the likelihood of injury to civilians, and no rise in the risk of harm to officers. We conclude that the PPST curriculum appears effective at reducing use of force by police in a large scale, robust trial.

AB - We aim to test the impact of a new national curriculum for public and personal safety training (PPST) developed by the College of Policing, which aims to reduce the use of force by police. We conduct a large-scale Stepped Wedge Pragmatic Controlled Trial with a single police force and 1843 participating police officers. Officers were assigned to be trained during a particular week of the year. We find statistically significant reductions in the use of force by police officers as a result of the training. These effects are a reduction of between 8.0% and 10.9% in the propensity to use force in a given week compared to the counterfactual. The effect is accompanied by a significant reduction in the likelihood of injury to civilians, and no rise in the risk of harm to officers. We conclude that the PPST curriculum appears effective at reducing use of force by police in a large scale, robust trial.

KW - policing

KW - training

KW - stepped wedge

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85206583462&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1080/24751979.2024.2412333

DO - 10.1080/24751979.2024.2412333

M3 - Article

SN - 2475-1987

SP - 1

JO - Justice Evaluation Journal

JF - Justice Evaluation Journal

ER -