The impact of officer and supervisor training in police use of force incidents

In response to problematic encounters, police agencies have increasingly relied on additional training as a remedy. While specific training is required for all officers within an agency or a state, larger police agencies often offer optional, discretionary training opportunities and newly developed programs. To build on and extend the work of Lim and Lee (2015), this study examines the impacts of topic-specific training and officers' use of force, while also incorporating the training received by their immediate supervisors. Using Response to Resistance (R2R) reports and training records from 2009 to 2017 provided by a large-sized police department in Texas, this study explores how both officer and supervisor training influence force application and the supervisory role in guiding and managing use of force decisions. Three topic-specific trainings focused on this study are on the topics related to the use of force, working with impaired individuals, and issues of race and ethnicity. Given the categorical nature of the dependent variable, clustered multinomial logistic regression models were employed, accounting for the nesting of officers under supervisors. Findings indicate that impairment-related training was generally associated with a reduced likelihood of higher levels of force, while force-specific training was unexpectedly linked to greater odds of using higher levels of force compared to the weaponless force. Supervisor training effects were inconsistent but significant in certain contrasts, underscoring the potential influence of supervisory oversight on officer behavior. Study limitations and recommendations for future studies were further discussed.