Police Decision - Making at Major Events

A Research Programme

Abstract

The Major Events Laboratory (MEL) started functioning in 2011. Its primary objectives are to develop research in what concerns the security of major events and to contribute to modernising police activity and the definition of good practices. One of MEL’s research lines tackles decision-making in police activity. Police decision makers face the limits of the human mind when making choices or solving problems. Facing time pressure, lacking complete knowledge and with information processing capability, they are prone to attaining acceptable and satisficing solutions under challenging and uncertain scenarios. Descriptive studies have been conducted using the naturalistic decision-making approach: on the field — at major political and sports events — at MEL’s simulation room, during traffi c control and during monitoring operations. The initial results are presented and implications for the learning and training process are discussed.