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Understanding the Workload of Police Investigators: a Human Factors Approach

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Abstract

Criminal investigative work entails a diverse array of tasks and responsibilities, ranging from interviewing suspects and victims to managing the paperwork and necessary follow-ups for each case. The present study sought to evaluate the workload and workload impacts of police investigators in a metropolitan police agency. The NASA-Task Load Index (NASA-TLX), a well-established human factor measure of workload, was administered on 759 investigators as a quantitative measure of workload. Subsequently, 49 investigators participated in focus group discussions to provide deeper insight into their workload experiences. The results indicate that police investigators reported a markedly high level of workload when compared to similar human factor studies in the literature. Findings of the focus group discussions attributed the perceived high workload to various contributors such as operational challenges, dealing with the public and external agencies, as well as organisational challenges. Interventions to manage the heavy workload were discussed. The human factors approach can be a suggested approach to understand the task load of police officers.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Police Psychological Services Department, Singapore Police Force, New Phoenix Park, 329560, Singapore

    Yong Sheng TAN, Alyah Dinah ZALZULI, Jansen ANG, Hui Fen HO & Cheryl TAN

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  1. Yong Sheng TAN
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  2. Alyah Dinah ZALZULI
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  3. Jansen ANG
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  4. Hui Fen HO
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  5. Cheryl TAN
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jansen ANG.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Appendix

Appendix

Table 1 Definitions of NASA-TLX domains
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Table 2 Breakdown of participants’ years of service in the investigation fraternity
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Table 3 NASA-TLX subscale descriptive statistics for tour activities and non-tour activities
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Fig. 1
figure 1

NASA-TLX rating scale

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TAN, Y.S., ZALZULI, A.D., ANG, J. et al. Understanding the Workload of Police Investigators: a Human Factors Approach. J Police Crim Psych 37, 447–456 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11896-022-09506-w

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