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JUMPING THE GUN

of ammunition only – the decision has already been taken to fire have discharged weapons prior to the armed assailant shooting first.
– the point of aim was identical. If we use the reaction time from Such a stance is frequently portrayed within the media, especially
the World record race with Lewis and Burrell both using a Glock when they have the benefit of hindsight for what is now known
17, Burrell would hit the subject as in figure 1 and Lewis figure 2 – presenting sensational articles, mocking or discrediting those
(approx – they are ‘ms’ after all). officers who found themselves in the most unenviable position of
Making any decision to ‘go’ too soon carries a high price in making a decision to shoot – a decision often made within a fraction
sporting competition; here anticipation can lead to disqualification of one second. Fortunately British Law recognises the concepts of
and failure. No pre-emptive strike is allowed within athletics, for a pre-emptive strike, a fact that many tabloids and sections of the
obvious reasons – it’s considered cheating. From sport we get the chattering classes find rather distasteful!
conditioning or framing effect of ‘sporting chance’ and fair play. Sport and policing present great cognitive demands and physical
Our views about cheating become entwined within the public pressures for all men and women performing within extreme
perception of what constitutes fair rules of the game – norms of and demanding circumstances. Elite athletic performers place
behaviour, expectations from previous experiences for the way themselves upon a stage where a world audience can judge them,
people would generally like things to happen. Within firearms success matters and failure really damages ego, potentially causing
incidents, anticipating the movements of an armed subject often self-doubt for future performances.
necessitates pre-emptive action. For the firearms officer the stakes are very different, they know
‘Jumping the gun’ offends the standard of acceptable rules in that delaying a decision or waiting for that ‘gun to sound’ can be
the subconscious of the British psyche for sport. T e same notion lethal for all those involved, public, police or hostage. Individual
seems especially poignant for some sections of society when police responsibility does carry a genuine and massive responsibility.
Take the shot or wait? Unlawful killing vs. potential legal action
for malfeasance in not saving life – not a very cheery prospect
either way!
When analysing the speed of decision making for sporting events
it is helpful to consider the cognitive and perceptual
processes enabling optimal human performance –
those split second timings for critical judgements,
when the stakes are so very high. Sports research tells
us a great deal about what is taking place when
the need to allocate attention and make great
decisions becomes shaped by extreme
time compression, emotion, anxiety
or fear. Historically, the amount of
time taken to prepare a movement
is called reaction time and the time
it takes to actually produce the
movement is called movement
time. In general a response
time increases when
more muscle