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WSU Health Sciences Spokane Extra

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

VilaBryan_2014

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:

State Legislators Announce Support for a WSU Medical School in Spokane

Marcus Riccelli

If you haven’t heard yet, there is growing support for a WSU medical school headquartered in Spokane.

On Tuesday, State Senator Michael Baumgartner (R-Spokane) and State Representative Marcus Riccelli (D-Spokane) announced bipartisan support for a WSU medical school. The two legislators announced they would introduce bills in their respective chambers to amend a law that is nearly a century old that mandates that only the University of Washington can operate a publicly funded medical school in the state.

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Fall Asleep Sooner by Avoiding Smartphones and Tablets

Do you use your smartphone or tablet just before you head to bed? If so, it could impact your sleep schedule each night.

So says a study performed for two KXLY TV reporters by our Sleep and Performance Research Center.

Our own Devon Grant administered the study. Her theory, which is supported from the study of the two KXLY reporters, says that people fall asleep sooner if they stay away from their smartphones and tablets for an hour before going to bed.

So if you want a better night of sleep, you might want to avoid that e-reader in bed.

This and That From Here and There

WSU Spokane Campus

WSU Spokane Campus

With Thanksgiving upon us, students are looking forward to a week off. But the beat goes on at WSU Spokane!

News doesn’t take a week off, and neither do we. Here’s a roundup of some things happening on campus recently:

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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.