Police

Responder Emergency Lighting

Optimum flash patters for emergency service vehicles

Project Overview

This project for HOSDB was concerned with reducing the hazardousnes of emergency service driving by improving emergency vehicle lighting.  User Perspective was tasked to design experimental trials identifying the optimal flash characteristics for roof-mounted emergency lighting. 

A pilot experiment was designed following a literature review, interviews with serving police officers and an analysis of accidents involving police vehicles.  This tested reactions and perceptions of police vehicles displaying different emergency lighting characteristics.

The trials found evidence to suggest faster flash rates enhance a driver's appreciation of the emergency vehicle's urgency and the wariness of their driving decisions.  The experimental design will be used as a template for a large scale investigation in this under-researched field.

Accidents in Rural Communities

Project Overview

Buckinghamshire Council requested a Human Factors review of four junctions that were perceived to have problems with fatal and serious collisions. The review of the junctions considered any impediments to normal human vision and perception and further considered the incident data that had led to the works proposal. The focus of this project switched quickly from perceived environmental problems to problems with interpreting data. Only one junction required actual physical remedial work and that the remaining junctions posed no greater problem than the norm and had simply been a case of misinterpretation of data viewed in isolation, rather than as a holistic data set.

Additional Photos

police and crowd

Police Car

Collisions Involving Pedestrians & Buses

Project Overview

This project adopted multiple methodologies to address an increase in pedestrian/bus collisions in the main thoroughfares of Brighton town centre. Observational studies of the environment and behaviour of pedestrians, ergonomic reviews of the buses, focus groups of bus drivers, examination of Police STATS 19 data and fatal incident case files provided a multi-layered approach to the problem posed. Proposals for interventions were two fold – firstly, an education campaign via local posters and banners designed using the principles of warning design.  Advice regarding warning design was communicated to ensure that the safety message was seen, trusted and understood.  Secondly, based on 'real world' and scientific research, engineering work and road alterations were undertaken which allowed pedestrians room to make mistakes and also accommodate the differences that exist between buses and other forms of transport.

Vehicle Stopping Technologies

Project Overview

This project took a User Centred approach to examine currently available vehicle stopping technology as used by selected police forces within the U.K. Ergonomic reviews of existing equipment in current use, interviews with Officers and trainers, and focus groups with users were undertaken.  Information mapping was employed as a problem solving tool to correlate problems identified by the research with any currently available technological solutions and to provide a way forward for any unsolved issues within the current designs. The aim was to ensure that the User was central to any solution that may be innovated and to best inform the design and implementation of new equipment so that any proposed changes could be soundly based on evidence rather than perceptions.

Eyewitness Training

Project Overview

Eyewitness Testimony is a complex domain with multiple influences. Officers presenting evidence in court frequently find solid forensic evidence ignored in favour of eyewitness testimony. These presentations sought to inform the Investigating Officers of the science behind this particularly thorny issue and to advise how improvements could be made to the collection of testimony. It was suggested that different recording methods could improve the quality of the testimony collected. Witness statement collection forms were considered relevant to our knowledge of human limitations in this domain and suggestions for improvements to the collection forms were also considered.

Road Traffic Collisions

Project Overview

This study considered data relating to three specific areas of interest in road traffic collisions within the Area 4 network of Kent and Sussex. The areas of specific interest were night time collisions, single vehicle collisions and child casualties. The report aimed to take an alternative ‘sideways’ approach in order to identify innovations and opportunities for interventions based on conclusions that could be drawn from existing data. Methodologies employed included data analysis; contextual reviews; and interviews with collision investigators. Causality was examined in order to identify issues and suggest innovations that would incorporate human abilities and limitations in the consideration of incident causation and deliver a way forward that considered both short and long term gains.

Seeing, Deciding & Acting

Control Panel Design in Security Specific Locations

Project Overview

This report presented a meta-analysis of our experience and findings from many projects in control rooms in multiple domains and with Commanders from bronze, silver and gold level. This ‘real world’ data was compared and contrasted to available scientific research in order to distil the multi layered knowledge into a short guide to human performance in the Commander’s domain.  Primarily the report aimed to support the Commander by providing guidelines for the effective control of situational awareness via tools, processes and training in order that he may SEE, DECIDE and ACT effectively.  We further sought to understand the effects of what has been seen; the decisions made; and the actions that followed; through feedback designed to continually help improve a Commander's ability to respond in a crisis situation. 

M25 Incidents & Collisions

Project Overview

This project used converging methodologies to examine accident data, anecdotal reports and physical environment from a human centric perspective. Incident files from the relevant police forces were examined to establish accurate causality and interviews with members of the relevant force’s collision investigation units as well as with Highways Agency operatives in order to obtain a holistic overview. Physical environment was considered relevant to known human limitations research. This was a limited pilot study that sought to present an example of the considerations that would be made when seeking to understand issues on a particular stretch of motorway and make recommendations based on that understanding.

Reducing Stationary Crashes with Police Cars

Project Overview

We were asked to consider why so many people collide with the rear of a stationary police car on a motorway. We started, like all our projects, with a careful understanding of the problem. In the first instance it appears at best strange that so many people collide with a highly visible vehicle.  Using models of human perception and data gathering methodologies we investigated the crashes and found that these were caused by middle aged drivers – rather than young inexperienced drivers which is the norm. We undertook a field study and ran a number of simulations. Prior to our work police vehicle parked in-line with the approaching traffic. Following our work police vehicles parked at an angle to the approaching vehicles. The distance at which drivers react is increased – and the number of losses has radically decreased.  This work was published in the following journal:

Langham M, Hole G, Edwards J, O'Neil C. (2002).  An analysis of 'looked but failed to see' accidents involving parked police vehicles Ergonomics 45, 3, 167-185(19)

Improving Pedestrian Conspicuity

Project Overview

Following the death of a local police officer we investigated how well high visibility clothing works at night and found that overall it works very poorly.   We conducted field trails and simulations to innovate a new uniform that improved conspicuity considerably. The new uniform design has been tested throughout the world and hopefully will be accepted as a better design by the relevant regulators.

Operation Paget

Operation Paget - Client MPS

Project Overview

Examination of the eyewitness testimony (EWT) raised an anomaly that helped fuel many a conspiracy theory. Forensic evidence identified the colour of the car that struck the Mercedes carrying Diana, Princess of Wales and Mr Fayed as being white, and yet eyewitnesses overwhelmingly identified the car as black, or dark, in colour. After a review of the physical environment revealed no attributes that could affect colour misperception, attention was turned to scientific explanations regarding the limitations of eyewitness testimony. Examination of previous research in the area of EWT and colour perception was surprisingly lacking. Based on the science of attention and perception, our researcher devised an experimental scenario that would account for the misperception in colour. Trials of this experiment found that the effect of the transfer of the dominant stimulus colour (black car) to the peripheral stimulus (white car) was replicated. This illustrated that under conditions of high arousal as a witness to a serious accident a white car can actually become black.  

Additional Links

http://www.met.police.uk/news/operation_paget_report.htm