LEOs often must make rapid decisions and actions to protect themselves and control a situation or a subject. While different agencies teach different techniques and philosophies for use-of-force and arrest-and-control, they are all enhanced by accurate and fast recognition of potentially attacking motions made by subjects. Whether subjects are civilians being questioned or suspects being detained, officers must respond with an appropriate scale and type of action. Slow or inappropriate actions can have highly negative results for subjects, officers, and their agencies. Unfortunately, training of rapid decision-action performance requires a high volume of practice that is difficult to acquire in training contexts that typically focus on “what you do” more than “what you see.”

One possible solution is to target the Recognition component for concentrated practice using the Video-Occlusion method developed in sports science. Video-occlusion was validated by reliably differentiating expert performers from less expert performers. It was then developed into video-occlusion training applications. For decades researchers have observed that video-occlusion might contribute to training rapid decision-action performance in military and law enforcement contexts. This study compared the performance of experienced law enforcement officers and less experienced officers on a video-occlusion test of Attack Recognition. Findings validated the video-occlusion method and recommended specific occlusion points for recognition-only video-occlusion training of attack recognition that can be delivered on tablets and cell phones as a way to accelerate expertise.