MTSU presents statewide job-task analysis identifying 380 essential duties for Tennessee officers

Middle Tennessee State University researchers on April 17 presented the first statewide job task analysis (JTA) for Tennessee law enforcement, identifying 380 validated tasks that the university recommends as core to entry-level officer training.

Dr. Ben Stickel and the MTSU team described a multi-step study that included literature review, 61 virtual focus groups with roughly 172 officers and deputies, and a statewide survey that drew approximately 717 respondents from patrol, investigations, K9, SWAT, traffic and other functions. Using a combined frequency-and-criticality scoring method, researchers validated 380 tasks out of an initial list of 458 as meeting the threshold for inclusion in entry-level training.

The study organized validated tasks into 55 categories and highlighted common, high-priority areas such as responding to domestic violence, use-of-force decision-making, crisis intervention for mental-health incidents, traffic enforcement, and basic investigative procedures. The researchers recommended that POST and state academies use the JTA to align basic training and testing with duties officers perform on day one…