A Critical Incident Review (CIR) is a thorough internal analysis of a “critical incident” or abnormal event. Several things simply did not go right. They are most frequently done after:
- Officer Involved Shootings
- In-Custody Deaths
- Arrest Related Deaths
- Controversial Incidents
- Accidental & Tragic Outcomes
- “Near Misses”
CIR’s are usually done because the agency wants to learn from the incident or determine if its operations led to the incident, and to what extent. The agency also wants to know how to prevent its occurrence again. Without a thorough review, the facts of what actually happened can be distorted by opinions, bad-facts and rumors. Critical Incident Reviews look at a variety of information:
- Facts and Circumstances of the Incident
- Organizational or Individual Training
- Policy and Procedure
- Agency Customs & Practices
- Communication
- Decision Making
- Root Cause Analysis
- Lesson Learned
Critical Incident Reviews can also be rife with biases and fallacies if not conducted properly. Those biases and fallacies can also change the trajectory of a review and lead to misdiagnosing the issues. Misdiagnosed issues lead to fixing a problem you don’t have.
Critical Incident Reviews also increase the morale in the agency by showing internal transparency, and allowing officers to learn from the incident that have occurred. Contact F.I.T. for a Critical Incident Review.
