Situational Decisionmaking (Sit-D)
Last Revised: October 22, 2025
- Issue Areas
- Justice and public safety
Program overview
Adapting the psychology of decision-making to law enforcement training: Situational Decisionmaking (Sit-D) training is a curriculum developed by researchers affiliated with the University of Chicago Crime Lab and delivered to Chicago Police Department officers. Sit-D training aims to improve officer decision-making by teaching them to more deliberately consider various interpretations of situations they encounter, rather than drawing quick conclusions. The training aims to improve officers' decision-making skills in situations they encounter on the job, including when to use force and make discretionary arrests.
Improving decision-making skills: Sit-D training teaches officers to navigate cognitive demands inherent in policing. Officers learn to recognize stressful situations, cognitive biases, and their emotional triggers. The training provides strategies to differentiate between subjective perceptions and objective facts, seek disconfirming evidence, and practice self regulation strategies. A core component is the five-step "Thinking Tactic Model" that prioritizes recognizing emotional triggers and using self-regulation strategies.
Intensive small-group instruction: Sit-D training consists of 16 hours, divided into four, four-hour sessions, with a ratio of 16 officers to four trainers. Sit-D training blends classroom instruction with scenario-based exercises, including Force Option Simulator (FOS) exercises that feature controlled scenarios that help officers think critically about their decisions, especially when to employ force.
- Strategies
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Evidence-based policing
- Location
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Chicago (IL)
A single study in Chicago (IL) with 2,070 officers shows that there is some evidence for Sit-D training as a strategy for reducing adverse policing outcomes such as discretionary arrests and use of non-lethal force.
A 2023 randomized controlled trial found that Sit-D training reduced uses of non-lethal force and discretionary arrests by 23%. Additionally, Sit-D leads to an 11% reduction in overall arrests of Black subjects without impacting arrest rates of any other races. Moreover, it leads to a 49% reduction in days off taken for officer injury - which offsets training costs. Additionally, fewer missed days for officer injury can be a source of cost saving for departments.
Train the trainer model to scale impact: In order to maximize the number of officers able to participate in Sit-D training, the researchers first taught 31 Chicago Police Officers how to deliver the training. A train the trainer model helps the program scale up to meet the needs of a large police force like the Chicago Police Department. Additionally, fellow police officers may be seen as more trustworthy messengers by those receiving the training.
Spacing out training sessions to increase adoption and retention: Police training is typically delivered at one time or during back-to-back sessions. This delivery model does not provide an opportunity for officers to use what they learn in the field and to receive feedback on how they are implementing the training. The four Sit-D sessions were spaced out over the course of several months to allow officers to begin practicing the lessons learned in the field. Later training sessions would start with a discussion on how officers had used the Sit-D teachings in their work.
Adapting scenarios to mirror real world situations: Police work requires responding to a wide variety of stressful situations. If certain scenarios or police responses are becoming more frequent, the Sit-D curriculum can be updated to include those scenarios so officers are better prepared to make decisions when those situations occur. For example, in response to widespread protests against systemic racism in policing in 2020, researchers added additional protest-based scenarios to the curriculum.