Tactical Breathing Enhances Police Performance in a Critical Incident Simulation

It has been suggested that stress management techniques may reduce acute stress for police officers and thus lead to more optimal performance in critical situations. In a preregistered between-subject experiment, third-year police students (N = 96) paired up to perform a field exercise of a simulated critical incident encounter. The pairs were randomized to receive “tactical breathing” instructions or to focus on standard operating procedures. Expert observers evaluated performance, and participants reported their level of stress. The preregistered analysis showed that stress was associated with lower performance. The pairs that used tactical breathing performed better than the control group. Tactical breathing was not associated with self-reported stress. These results appear to indicate that brief reminders about stress management techniques can improve police performance. The mechanism may be through changing the available cognitive resources, rather than due to subjective stress reduction.