Catch me if you can: Technological constraints/affordances and mindfulness during collaborative police emergency response

Abstract

Nowadays, mobile technology plays an essential role during police emergency response duties. This article presents the result of an ethnographic research in progress. Police officers were shadowed during their shifts (70 hours of observation) in cases of time-pressured incidents. We analyze the entanglement between the material and human agencies while the police officers were responding to two incidents (a holdup and a burglary). We assess the effect of technological constraints and affordances on human mindfulness. Mindfulness is important to achieve a successful collaborative response to an emergency where multiple High Reliability Teams are involved. When technology is not used to its full potential, our results show that it hinders collaboration between teams. Additionally, the results show the amount of time pressure affects the level of mindfulness among police officers.