I would like to dedicate this article to Officer “Mark Sawyers” of the Sterling Heights Police Department. Badge “76,” your memory lives on.

Creating training with realism is the primary factor that will help build better cognitive thinking skills so when SWAT cops are subjected to actual combat they will feel that they’ve already been there and been exposed to that environment. There are several techniques you can use when training SWAT cops to achieve this, but introducing stress into all of your training is paramount.

As we all know, this week is National Police Week and as we reflect on our Warriors that gave the ultimate sacrifice I would like to share with you the importance of cognitive thinking as it applies to SWAT and to all police work.

Cognitive thinking may be the single most important trait of a SWAT warrior — when dealing with a deadly adversary in that dark moment of combat your success may hinge on your cognitive thinking abilities. The cognitive thinking process includes:

• Divided attention and your ability to manage it: Divided attention allows you to handle two or more tasks at one time.
• Working memory and your ability to utilize it under pressure: Working memory is the ability to retain information for short periods of time while processing or using it.
• Processing speed of the information presented to you: Processing speed is the rate at which the brain handles information.
• Long-term memory of past incidents and training: Long-term memory is the ability to both store and recall information for later use.
• Visual processing of the situation: Visual processing is the ability to perceive, analyze, and think in visual images. Visual discrimination is seeing differences in size, color, shape, distance, and the orientation of objects. Visualization is creating mental images.
• Auditory processing of the situation: Auditory processing is the ability to perceive, analyze, and conceptualize what is heard. Auditory discrimination is hearing differences in sounds, including volume, pitch and duration.
• Logic and reasoning of the information and situation: Logic and reasoning skills are the abilities to reason, prioritize, and plan.

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