The training of police officers across the U.S. varies by state due to state regulatory standards but follows federal standards of qualification, and due to the nature of their work they encounter deception in their field. The public, though not in the realm of law enforcement, encounters deception in their day-to-day life.
Could the exposure to different extremities of deception allow one to identify deception and to what degree?
The purpose of this study is to examine deceptive awareness between civilians and law enforcement groups, determining whether there are any correlation or comparisons between the groups.
The posed research question is ‘How does a civilian audience react to deception from politicians, presented as truth, based on their verbal and nonverbal behaviour compared to trained law enforcement professionals?
What do both civilian and law enforcement audiences notice that may be indicative of deception?’
In order to address the posed research question, the two groups, civilian (3 participants) and law enforcement (3 participants), were examined separately in a qualitative analysis that exposes participants to political video clips in which the participant will conclude whether the videos contained deceit.
Secondly, participants were recorded during the video clips to be later analyzed by experts for body language behaviors and recognition of deception identifiers.
Survey participants were given a series of questions before the study, to provide demographical data or any potential bias, followed by a completion survey and discussion once they have watched the full video clip.
With the results of this study, the public and law enforcement officers will have an understanding of the limitations of first responders and whether credibility analysis training of officers should be a focus for local government and departmental organizations.
