DOI: 10.3886/icpsr37856
title: Social Interaction Training to Reduce Police Use of Force, Fayetteville, NC and Tucson, AZ, 2016-2018
title: Archival Version

description: This study evaluated Polis Solution's Tact, Tactics, and Trust (T3) program using a randomized controlled trial (RCT). Survey data were collected from experimental and control group officers at two research sites prior to and after the implementation of the training program. Additionally, official use of force reports from both agencies were collected from roughly one year prior to the implementation of the training program to one year after the completion of the training program. The survey data are used to examine changes in officers' attitudes and priorities during hypothetical officer-citizen encounters to determine if the training program impacted the importance officers placed on specific social interaction concerns. The use of force reports were then used to determine whether the training program successfully reduced the number of use of force incidents among officers involved in the training program.
description: The purpose of the study is to evaluate the effect of a training program on the use of force and officer interactions with citizens.
description: The training program that the study team evaluated was Polis Solutions' "Tact, Tactics, and Trust" (T3) training--a proprietary program based on U.S. Department of Defense work called the "Good Stranger" program (Klein et al. 2014). Evaluation of T3 involved a partnership with Fayetteville (NC) Police Department (FPD) and Tucson (AZ) Police Department (TPD). FPD serves a racially diverse population of approximately 205,000. About 46 percent of Fayetteville residents are white, while 42 percent are African American. The department had 164 patrol officers at the time of the study and reported about 750 violent crimes per 100,000 citizens. TPD, by contrast, serves a larger jurisdiction, but also with two major social groups: 530,000 citizens reside in Tucson, with about 42 percent of the population being Hispanic and 47 percent non-Hispanic white. TPD had 320 patrol officers at the time of the study and experienced about 795 violent crimes per 100,000 residents.
While the evaluation was primarily focused on determining whether T3 influenced officers' attitudes and behaviors regarding social interactions, the study team was also interested in whether the amount of training influenced these outcomes. Accordingly, the study team developed a protocol in collaboration with each police agency in which a high-dose group of officers would receive six months of T3 training, and a low-dose group would receive three months of training. The study team also worked with departmental contacts to randomly assign all patrol officers to either the experimental training or control conditions using rosters within each agency. Accordingly, a randomized-controlled trial was used to evaluate T3.
description: The data includes variables examining changes in officers' attitudes and priorities during hypothetical officer-citizen encounters.
description: Not applicable.
description: Response Rates: 23 percent attrition rate.
description: Presence of Common Scales: Not applicable.
description: Between the two Police Departments included in the study, a total of 166 officers were randomly assigned to the experimental group and 228 to the control group.
description: Datasets: 
DS0: Study-Level Files
DS1: Pre-test Survey Data
DS2: Post-test Survey Data
description: Members of the Police force. Smallest Geographic Unit: None.
description: on-site questionnaire