The general intervention model of policing: a narrative review of the literature

Abstract

Dealing with individuals suffering mental illness, being in psychological emergencies or crisis and any other exceptional circumstances is one of the most common professional requirements of police officers. Their personnel selection, education and advanced training must be consistently targeted toward successful coping with the real-world demands of police work. The question arises of what is necessary for police officers to be able to deal with individuals in psychological distress or exceptional situations without the use of force and the associated consequences on all those involved. In this article, we present a General Intervention Model of Policing (GIMP) consisting of three building blocks: (i) knowledge, (ii) processing, (iii) action. In this context, we propose that these empirically informed building blocks are necessary to achieve the aforementioned goal from the perspective of the police. We conceptualize the GIMP as a cognitive action model that particularly describes the mental processes of police officers involved. The model can be used as a basis for the development and empirical testing of a police requirement profile, as well as for the content of police recruitment and training. After presenting the building blocks of the model, it is placed in the context of other policing models and discussed.

Keywords: action; cognitive action model; knowledge; mentally ill; police interventions and mission management; police operations; processing; psychosocial crisis.

Figure 1

Architecture of the general intervention model of policing and its components “knowledge,” “processing” and “action.” The model specifies these components as a prerequisite for the successful management of complex and dynamic police operations (Source: Authors illustration).