Police Work, Fatigue, and Personal Security

Here’s something you don’t see often in discussions on personal security—the impact of sleep deprivation on the ability to make sound judgment calls during a dangerous encounter. But that’s exactly what Paladin author and Washington State University criminal justice professor Bryan Vila is studying. As a U.S. Marine veteran of Vietnam, street cop with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, and police chief in the Pacific Ocean region of Micronesia (recounted in his acclaimed Paladin book, Micronesian Blues), he knows the subject first hand.

Vila is the founder/director of WSU’s Simulated Hazardous Operational Tasks (SHOT) laboratory, a cutting-edge facility that puts both sleep-deprived and rested police officers into simulations of actual high-stress police calls—“hidden hands” motor vehicle stops; highly charged domestic disputes; etc.—and monitors their actions and reactions down to the second as the intensity mounts and snap decisions have to be made. The informative results are helping to drive policy changes that can only make make officers and citizens safer in the future.

Have a look at this profile of Vila’s work in this important field. It’s easy to see its relevance for cops and combat soldiers, but his findings apply to all of us who might one day find ourselves in harm’s way. See for yourself why sleep is so important to your overall mental and physical conditioning and what happens when you don’t get enough.