RESEARCH FOCUSES ON POLICE DISTRACTIONS AND DECISION MAKING

Some recent media on police distractions and police shootings featured research from the WSU Spokane campus.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch had a long story on police officers in the wake of the Ferguson, Mo. riots asking for more officers due to fatigue, stress and scrutiny.

WSU Spokane researcher Lois James is quoted, and talks about her findings that show police officers hesitate longer when involved in a possibly deadly encounter with black suspects. James is part of WSU’s criminal justice program.

While the research is happening in Spokane, it’s reaching audiences all over the country.

KARE TV, a Minneapolis TV station, teamed up with Minneapolis Public Radio to investigate how police officers are often distracted while driving. The two media outlets’ investigation brought them to Bryan Vila, a criminal justice professor at WSU Spokane who has studied a number of things relating to police officer fatigue and distractions:

This shows how important the research on our campus is to the public, both near and far. Learn more about the criminal justice program at WSU Spokane.