WSU Spokane Criminal Justice Professor Gives TEDx Spokane Talk on Police Decision Making

Bryan Vila is a Criminal Justice professor and a researcher on our campus. His research on police work has received attention in a number of media outlets, including the New York Times, NPR and CNN.

Recently, Vila presented at TEDx Spokane, an event independent of TED Talks but with a similar mission: to share ideas.

Vila talked about the various factors that impact police officers’ decision making processes, including fatigue, too much work and too little sleep, distractions in the squad car and more. Vila attributes some of this to insufficient funding in many police departments around the country. Vila’s suggested solutions to these problems boil down to increasing staffing and improving how the challenges of shift work are managed.

Watch the presentation: