Creating Guardians or Warriors? Examining the Effects of Non-Stress Training on Policing Outcomes

• Date: 01 January 2021
• Published date: 01 January 2021
• DOI: 10.1177/0275074020970178
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0275074020970178

American Review of Public Administration

2021, Vol. 51(1) 3 –16

© The Author(s) 2020

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DOI: 10.1177/0275074020970178

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Article

Introduction

The events in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014 and across the

country after the death of George Floyd in 2020 have ele-

vated national awareness of police violence1 and its dispro-

portionate impacts on communities of color. These concerns

are not new, of course, but high-profile fatal encounters

between police and citizens have dramatically increased the

salience of policing outcomes in the United States during the

past few years. Advocates and scholars have been vocal

about the need for reform, with proposals including diversi-

fying the police force (e.g., S. Nicholson-Crotty et al., 2017),

screening for officers with better culture sensitivity and con-

flict management skills (e.g., J. Nicholson-Crotty et al.,

2018), external or civilian review boards (e.g., Ali & Pirog,

2019), and numerous others. Another proposed solution is a

change in the way in which police are trained. Specifically,

advocates call for more training that creates “guardians” who

protect and serve, instead of “warriors” who control and con-

quer (e.g., Blumberg et al., 2019; Kindy, 2015; Moraff, 2014;

Rahr & Rice, 2015).2

According to statistics from a survey on police training

academies nationwide performed by the Bureau of Justice

Statistics (BJS) in 2013, 51% of police academies in the sur-

vey adopted a model that was more “stress” than “non-stress”

oriented. Stress-oriented training is the traditional form of

police training, which emphasizes militarization, typically

involves intensive physical demands and psychological pres-

sure, and prepares officers for aggressive reactions to possi-

ble threats in the field. Alternatively, 20% of academies

identified themselves as more non-stress oriented when they

train cadets (Reaves, 2016). This type of training shifts the

focus toward problem solving, conflict management, media-

tion, and de-escalation techniques. These non-stress tech-

niques are the ones advocated by those concerned with

violent interactions between citizens and police.

Unfortunately, current research on policing outcomes does

not offer a thorough examination of the impact of different

policing training regimes. There has existed variation in the

way police are trained for some time, however, and it is pos-

sible therefore to empirically test the merit of proposals

regarding changes to police training.

This article engages the question of whether different

training regimes influence the nature of police–citizen inter-

actions and the outcomes they produce, such as use of lethal

970178ARPXXX10.1177/0275074020970178The American Review of Public AdministrationLi et al.

research-article2020

1Indiana University Bloomington, USA

Corresponding Author:

Danyao Li, Indiana University Bloomington, 1315 E. 10th St., Bloomington,

IN 47405, USA.

Email: danyli@indiana.edu

Creating Guardians or Warriors? Examining

the Effects of Non-Stress Training on

Policing Outcomes

Danyao Li1, Sean Nicholson-Crotty1, and Jill Nicholson-Crotty1

Abstract

High-profile fatal police shootings of persons of color in recent years have led some to propose changes in the ways that

police officers are trained to reduce violence in interactions between officers and citizens. This article explores the impact

of a non-stress-oriented training model that some police academies have adopted as an alternative to traditional militaristic

training models. We integrate multiple theoretical perspectives to develop the expectation that training interventions will

have a significant impact on the nature of police/citizen interactions only when turnover of officers is sufficiently high.

Results from analyses of 133 middle- to large-sized municipal police departments in 2013 suggest that non-stress training is

significantly associated with reductions in use of deadly force by officers in those departments where recruits trained under

such regimes make up a larger portion of the force. We do not find a significant direct or moderated effect on the number

of police injured in confrontations with citizens or in the prevalence of discretionary arrests.

Keywords

police training, non-stress training, de-escalation, organizational socialization, use of force, police–citizen encounter