Purpose Facing the COVID-19 pandemic, police officers are confronted with various novel challenges, which might place additional strain on officers. This mixed-method study investigated officers' strain over three months after the lockdown. Methods In an online survey, 2567 police officers (77% male) from Austria, Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Spain participated at three measurement points per country in spring, 2020. Three-level growth curve models assessed changes in strain and its relation to stressor appraisal, emotion regulation, and preparedness through training. To add context to the findings, free response answers about officers' main tasks, stressors, and crisis measures were coded inductively. Results On average, officers seemed to tolerate the pandemic with slight decreases in strain over time. Despite substantial variance between countries, 66% of the variance occurred between individuals. Sex, work experience, stressor appraisal, emotion regulation, and preparedness significantly predicted strain. Risk of infection and deficient communication emerged as main stressors. Officers' reports allowed to derive implications for governmental, organizational, and individual coping strategies during pandemics. Conclusion Preparing for a pandemic requires three primary paths: 1) enacting unambiguous laws and increasing public compliance through media communication, 2) being logistically prepared, and 3) improving stress regulation skills in police training.

The social desirability bias can be considered a two-dimensional construct, consisting of impression management and self-deception. Although social desirability is often considered a threat to the validity of intimate partner violence (IPV) reports, little is known about which dimension is most responsible for this distortion. Furthermore, it is unclear whether social desirability distorts the report of relationship satisfaction. In this study, two instruments that claim to measure social desirability are investigated on their ability to measure impression management and self-deception. Afterward, which dimension (if any) is responsible for a distortion in IPV and relationship satisfaction reports is examined. The survey consisted of the following measures: the Revised Conflict Tactics Scales for IPV, the Couples Satisfaction Index for relationship satisfaction and the Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding, the Limited Disclosure Scale, and the Idealistic Distortion Scale for social desirability. The Limited Disclosure Scale was found to predominantly measure impression management. The Idealistic Distortion Scale did not measure social desirability well and appeared to be a bad measure for relationship satisfaction. Both the reports of IPV and relationship satisfaction were influenced by impression management, but not by self-deception. However, impression management and self-deception only accounted for a small portion of the variance in IPV and relationship satisfaction reports. These results indicate that the social desirability bias, when reporting IPV and relationship satisfaction, is a conscious process, but that its influence on IPV and relationship satisfaction reports might be overrated.

No abstract

Virtual Reality (VR) is increasingly being used in the area of training. Especially for professions where errors can cost human lives, VR simulation training can be valuable. Therefore, VR is very suited to improve CBRNe training. To maximize the effectiveness of VR training, it is imperative that such a CBRNe VR training is introduced and implemented sensibly. Building on data from workshops with police officers, trainers and other experts in policing, this study aimed to conduct a comprehensive SWOT analysis, to uncover the current Strengths and Weaknesses of VR as well as identify potential future Opportunities and Threats to a successful implementation of VR in CBRNe training. Results showed that the strengths of VR for CBRNe training are, amongst others, the ability to realistically simulate dangerous situations that are difficult to organise in reallife, the possibility for trainees to train regularly and at any location, and the fact that trainings can be recorded and comprehensively reviewed with trainees afterwards. Lack of technology acceptance, economic aspects, incomplete requirements and technical limitations are the main weaknesses of VR. This has resulted in the formulation of a set of 10 important guidelines to successfully introduce and implement VR in CBRNe training practices.