Justin Ready is an Associate Professor in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Griffith University. He received his PhD at Rutgers University where he served as Director in the Centre for Crime Prevention Studies. He later worked as a Senior Research Associate at the Police Foundation in Washington, DC. His research focuses on crime hot spots, police officer memory under stress, and the impact of new technology on police practices. He is the 2013 recipient of the Young Experimental Scholar Award and the 2016 recipient of the Award for the Outstanding Experimental Field Trial. More recently, Dr Ready has worked closely with police leadership and has led research projects for the Queensland and Victoria Police. These include the QPS Evaluation of Operation Uniform Knot: A Coordinated Effort to Disrupt Criminal Street Gangs, the QPS Study of Officer-Involved Shootings: Testing the Effect of Interview Timing on Memory, and Operation Capesso: The Impact of Focused Deterrence on Repeat Violent Offenders in Victoria. His publications have appeared in academic journals such as Criminology, the Journal of Experimental Criminology and Justice Quarterly.
Presentation
Understanding Police Officers’ Memory of Stressful Events: Exploring the Effects of Interview Timing and Body-worn Camera Video
Justin Ready and Louise Porter, Griffith University
This study explored Queensland Police recruits’ memory of a simulated high-stress shooting scenario, focusing on the effects of interview timing and watching the body-worn camera (BWC) footage. A total of 166 recruits underwent a training scenario while wearing a body-worn camera (BWC). They were then randomly assigned to be interviewed about the event either the same day or 3-5 days later. The recruits were also randomly assigned to view or not view their BWC video immediately prior to the interview. Recruits’ free recall generally contained a proportionally low number of details but was 90% accurate, on average. The details most likely mentioned included many of the ‘core details’ of the incident. However, spatial details were less frequently reported and less accurate than other types of details. Interviews conducted on the same day as the scenario yielded more non-engagement details (details outside of the interaction with the offender) and spatial details than delayed interviews. However, delayed interviews showed some evidence of an improvement in the reporting and accuracy of engagement details (interaction with the offender). Viewing BWC video before an interview had a small positive effect on the amount of detail reported, particularly auditory and spatial details, and a large positive effect on accuracy of non-engagement details. However, watching the video seemed to negatively impact the reporting and accuracy of engagement details. Policy implications will be discussed.