Police Officer Self-Regulation

Self-regulation is a multifaceted construct affecting various behaviors and is critical to police officers to ensure the safe and rational discharge of their duties. Psychological triggers can significantly contribute to the inability to self-regulate, or control impulsiveness, while on duty. This can be problematic to an officer and the public.

Police officers must be able to adapt quickly to volatile work situations; controlling impulsiveness is critical in these types of environments. Officers are human and have a breaking point through no fault of their own.

We have identified and continue to identify potential psychological triggers that can quickly deplete an officer’s self-regulatory resources. We teach our officers to recognize and mitigate these triggers, thus allowing them to maintain their self-regulatory resources. Officers can then psychologically function in a professional and non-impulsive manner when confronted with various psychological triggers.

Our training is unique in that it can be used to defend an officer accused of excessive use of force, racial bias/profiling, or other questionable allegations when such allegations are unwarranted, rhetorical, and malicious.