POLICE UNION CONTRACT "WAITING PERIODS" FOR MISCONDUCT INVESTIGATIONS NOT SUPPORTED BY SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE (July 2015)
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From the "Executive Summary" of POLICE UNION CONTRACT "WAITING PERIODS" FOR MISCONDUCT INVESTIGATIONS NOT SUPPORTED BY SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE (July 2015):
Some police union contracts around the country have provisions prohibiting departmental investigations of suspected officer misconduct for 48-hours or even 10 days. Advocates of these waiting periods argue that the stress of a critical incident, such as an officer-involved shooting or serious use-of- force, adversely affects an officer’s memory, and that it takes “two sleep cycles” for memory to fully recover. A review of the psychological literature finds no support for this argument. The evidence on the impact of stress on memory is very complex, with contradictory findings. Some studies, in fact, have found that stress actually enhances memory.
In addition, even if the science underlying waiting periods were valid, police unions and their advocates apply waiting periods in an inconsistent, hypocritical and self-serving manner. They do not, for example, extend the privilege of delayed investigations to crime victims, witnesses, or suspected criminals, two groups who presumably would have flawed memories because of their recent traumatic experiences.
