ABSTRACT
The officers in these and other scenarios were observed and interviewed as they worked in an effort to understand and improve the cognitive aspects of their work. Police work involves uncertainty, evolving scenarios, collaboration with other officers and agencies, and information derived or mediated by information systems. This combination of complex work, officers and system dependence often results in suboptimal results. In several situations, the information systems that were intended to support officer cognitive activities, such as judgment and decisionmaking, actually had an opposite effect. For example, poorly designed interfaces, partial system access or limited system availability resulted in cognitive breakdowns that could distract officers in the performance of their duties. In other situations, support tools that could have helped were noticeably missing, also creating an unnecessary cognitive burden on officers.
