‘Curb sitting’: An evidence-based policing practice or an officer safety myth?

ABSTRACT

Law enforcement officers across the country are trained in various tactics and techniques intended to increase the overall safety within a police-citizen contact. One common, albeit controversial tactic is referred to as “curb sitting”. The curb-sitting tactic is generally associated with officers requiring criminal suspects to sit on a curb with their legs outstretched in front of them. The tactic is believed to provide officers additional reaction time to defend themselves from an attack but is also considered unnecessarily demeaning. The efficacy of the curb-sitting tactic has not previously been determined. The current study is the first to evaluate three common variations of the curb-sitting tactic to determine which, if any seated position allowed officers more time to respond to an attack when compared to a subject standing five feet away. Our results show that a seated subject with their legs extended is associated with a significant increase in time to cross five feet when compared to a standing subject. Based on these results, the curb-sitting tactic appears to be an evidence-based method of increasing an officer’s time to respond to an attack. Implications for law enforcement training and tactics, as well as recommendations for future research are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• law enforcement tactics
• law enforcement training
• reaction time
• human factors
• human performance

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

David Blake

David Blake is a retired California Peace Officer with over 20 years of law enforcement experience. He holds instructor certifications in firearms, arrest and control, TASER®, Reality-Based Training, and the Force Options Simulator. He is currently a police practices consultant focusing on the use of force and human factors psychology. Dave studies police performance during critical incidents and is focused on developing evidence-based training for law enforcement.

Joel Suss

Joel Suss is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at Wichita State University. He applies principles from cognitive psychology, human factors psychology, and ergonomics to understand police and military performance—especially in volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous situations—and develop evidence-based training. He studies police decision making from the perspectives of perceptual–cognitive expertise and macrocognition/naturalistic decision making.

Duane Wolfe

Duane Wolfe is a retired Minnesota Peace Officer with more than 25 years of service. During his career, he served as a patrolman, sergeant, S.R.T., use of force and firearms instructor. He is also a full-time instructor in the Law Enforcement Program at Alexandria Technical and Community College, Alexandria, Minnesota. Duane has a Bachelor of Science Degree in Criminal Justice from Bemidji State University and a Masters Degree in Education from Southwest State University.

Güler Arsal

Güler Arsal is an independent researcher whose main research interests lie in the area of skilled performance. Her research focuses on knowledge acquisition and understanding and improving perceptual–cognitive performance (e.g., decision making). She studies human performance in both laboratory and real-world settings using cognitive-task-analysis techniques and cognitive process-tracing methods (e.g., think-aloud reports). She earned her Doctorate of Philosophy in Sport and Exercise Psychology from Florida State University and completed postdoctoral research in applied cognitive psychology at the School of Human & Health Sciences, University of Huddersfield, United Kingdom. Most recently, Dr. Arsal was a research associate at the Envision Research Institute, Wichita, Kansas.