Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, Vol 31(1), Feb 2025, 6-21; doi:10.1037/law0000440
911 calls are often the catalyst for initiating a medical or law enforcement response to critically injured or deceased persons and may contain important details to assist first responders in quickly prioritizing resources. Callers providing deceptive information may impede these efforts. The current study examined the efficacy of the Considering Offender Probability in Statements (COPS) Scale in judging whether a 911 caller was or was not involved in the death or serious physical injury of the individual whom they were reporting. Specifically, the current study examined whether sworn law enforcement officers using the COPS Scale could correctly distinguish 911 callers who did not cause the person’s death from 911 callers who did cause the person’s death. Agreement among participants on the presence of COPS Scale indicators in calls was generally poor. All guilty and innocent indicators were predictive of participant judgments of callers’ guilt or innocence. However, most indicators were not predictive of guilty or innocent calls, and several were more common in the opposite type of call. The innocence or guilt of 911 callers was mischaracterized in approximately four out of every 10 calls and also influenced questions the law enforcement officers would ask of the caller. Our findings do not support the use of the COPS Scale as a measure of innocence or guilt among 911 callers and suggest its use could detrimentally influence investigative strategies. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)