Boe et al. (2020) have recently raised the remarkable question of whether the Norwegian police (andthe police in general, p. 2) is in need of a well-functioning combat mindset. In the light of the seriesof ongoing current incidents and public debates regarding police work on an international level,the issue tackled by the authors is socially and scientifically of high relevance and raises a numberof follow-up questions, last but not the least essentially challenging the present organization ofpolice education and training in Norway. In view of their former studies primarily on militaryperformance in demanding operations, Boe et al. (2020) explain “that a combat mindset is ofgreat import (sic!) when it comes to coping with complex and unpredictable situations” (p. 2).To illustrate the relevance of such a combat mindset, the authors refer to the terrorist events thatshook Norway on the 22nd of July 2011 and caused the country to suffer the largest terrorist attacksince World War II. As Boe et al. (2020) assume, police performance before, during, and after theterrorist attacks lacked a combat mindset, defined as “willingness and ability to continue the fightdespite high levels of mental and physical pain” (p. 2), which leads them to the conclusion “thatthe Norwegian Police Force could certainly have spent more time and resources on developinga better combat mindset” (p. 3). Although we fully appreciate that the authors aim at criticallyreflecting upon police operation to optimize further the preparation of police officers, we raiseseveral concerns about how the authors arrive at the conclusion of their article. The followingcommentary will cover five major aspects that we feel warrants additional mention and may extendand differentiate some of the suggestions.
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