Multi‐tasking behaviors of general duty police officers

The purpose of the present study was to examine the multi‐tasking behaviors of general duty police officers, using driving a motor vehicle as the primary task. Fifty‐five percent of the officers were observed performing at least one other task while driving, and 7% of officers were observed using their mobile data terminal (MDT) while driving and handling another object simultaneously. Our results indicate that the ability to perform the bona fide occupational requirements of a police officer will require the individual to be able to effectively process information, and multi‐task. To reduce the performance decrements that occur while multi‐tasking, adequate time and attention must be paid to the training of the individual tasks prior to performing them in combination.

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