RT journal article
T1 “Should I stay or should I go”: experience does not make the expert in police snap decision-making
A1 Tejeiro Salguero, Ricardo
A1 Shortland, Neil
A1 Paramio Leiva, Alberto
A1 Alison, Laurence
A1 González Álvarez, José Luis
A2 Psicología
K1 Expertise
K1 Decision-making
K1 Policing
K1 Sacred values
AB PurposeWe analyse the role of subject matter experts' experience in establishing performance benchmarks for ambiguous and unstructured police tasks.Design/methodology/approachParticipants included 156 students in the final week of their training to become commissioned officers of a police force (78.8% male, aged 21 to 54); 55.8% had previous experience as police officers, with 5–39 years of service (expert group). Participants completed an online questionnaire providing demographic data and responded to three written vignettes presenting critical high-ambiguity, time-pressure, and life-threatening situations.FindingsHaving prior police experience or being familiar with the situations presented in the vignettes did not impact the decisions made in two of the three vignettes. In the vignette where differences appeared, there was no clearly preferred option among the experts. Experts provided shorter and less elaborate justifications for their decisions compared to novices.Originality/valueOverall experience and personal familiarity with situations do not appear to be sufficient conditions for identifying someone as an expert in this type of tasks. Results are discussed in relation to the difference between knowing what one should do and what one does due to stress and the moral or “sacred” values prevalent in police forces.
PB Emerald Publishing
SN 1363-951X
YR 2024
FD 2024-05-21
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10498/34381
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10498/34381
LA eng
DS Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Cádiz
RD 11-nov-2026