Studies

Rich Parsons

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I got this in an e-mail.

What is everyone's thoughts?


New findings on how offenders train with, carry and
deploy the weapons they use to attack police officers
have emerged in a just-published, 5-year study by the
FBI.

Among other things, the data reveal that most would-be
cop killers:

--show signs of being armed that officers miss;

--have more experience using deadly force in “street
combat” than their intended victims;

--practice with firearms more often and shoot more
accurately;

--have no hesitation whatsoever about pulling the
trigger. “If you hesitate,” one told the study’s
researchers, “you’re dead. You have the instinct or
you don’t. If you don’t, you’re in trouble on the
street….”

These and other weapons-related findings comprise one
chapter in a 180-page research summary called “Violent
Encounters: A Study of Felonious Assaults on Our
Nation’s Law Enforcement Officers.” The study is the
third in a series of long investigations into fatal
and nonfatal attacks on POs by the FBI team of Dr.
Anthony Pinizzotto, clinical forensic psychologist,
and Ed Davis, criminal investigative instructor, both
with the Bureau’s Behavioral Science Unit, and Charles
Miller III, coordinator of the LEOs Killed and
Assaulted program.

“Violent Encounters” also reports in detail on the
personal characteristics of attacked officers and
their assaulters, the role of perception in
life-threatening confrontations, the myths of memory
that can hamper OIS investigations, the suicide-by-cop
phenomenon, current training issues, and other matters
relevant to officer survival. (Force Science News and
our strategic partner PoliceOne.com will be reporting
on more findings from this landmark study in future
transmissions.)

Commenting on the broad-based study, Dr. Bill
Lewinski, executive director of the Force Science
Research Center at Minnesota State University-Mankato,
called it “very challenging and insightful--important
work that only a handful of gifted and experienced
researchers could accomplish.”

>From a pool of more than 800 incidents, the
researchers selected 40, involving 43 offenders (13 of
them admitted gangbangers-drug traffickers) and 50
officers, for in-depth exploration. They visited crime
scenes and extensively interviewed surviving officers
and attackers alike, most of the latter in prison.

Here are highlights of what they learned about weapon
selection, familiarity, transport and use by criminals
attempting to murder cops, a small portion of the
overall research:

Weapon Choice

Predominately handguns were used in the assaults on
officers and all but one were obtained illegally,
usually in street transactions or in thefts. In
contrast to media myth, none of the firearms in the
study was obtained from gun shows. What was available
“was the overriding factor in weapon choice,” the
report says. Only 1 offender hand-picked a particular
gun “because he felt it would do the most damage to a
human being.”

Researcher Davis, in a presentation and discussion for
the International Assn. of Chiefs of Police, noted
that none of the attackers interviewed was “hindered
by any law--federal, state or local--that has ever
been established to prevent gun ownership. They just
laughed at gun laws.”

Familiarity

Several of the offenders began regularly to carry
weapons when they were 9 to 12 years old, although the
average age was 17 when they first started packing
“most of the time.” Gang members especially started
young.

Nearly 40% of the offenders had some type of formal
firearms training, primarily from the military. More
than 80% “regularly practiced with handguns, averaging
23 practice sessions a year,” the study reports,
usually in informal settings like trash dumps, rural
woods, back yards and “street corners in known
drug-trafficking areas.”

One spoke of being motivated to improve his gun skills
by his belief that officers “go to the range two,
three times a week [and] practice arms so they can hit
anything.”

In reality, victim officers in the study averaged just
14 hours of sidearm training and 2.5 qualifications
per year. Only 6 of the 50 officers reported
practicing regularly with handguns apart from what
their department required, and that was mostly in
competitive shooting. Overall, the offenders practiced
more often than the officers they assaulted, and this
“may have helped increase [their] marksmanship
skills,” the study says.

The offender quoted above about his practice
motivation, for example, fired 12 rounds at an
officer, striking him 3 times. The officer fired 7
rounds, all misses.

More than 40% of the offenders had been involved in
actual shooting confrontations before they feloniously
assaulted an officer. Ten of these “street combat
veterans,” all from “inner-city, drug-trafficking
environments,” had taken part in 5 or more “criminal
firefight experiences” in their lifetime.

One reported that he was 14 when he was first shot on
the street, “about 18 before a cop shot me.” Another
said getting shot was a pivotal experience “because I
made up my mind no one was gonna shoot me again.”

Again in contrast, only 8 of the 50 LEO victims had
participated in a prior shooting; 1 had been involved
in 2 previously, another in 3. Seven of the 8 had
killed offenders.

Concealment

The offenders said they most often hid guns on their
person in the front waistband, with the groin area and
the small of the back nearly tied for second place.
Some occasionally gave their weapons to another person
to carry, “most often a female companion.” None
regularly used a holster, and about 40% at least
sometimes carried a backup weapon.

In motor vehicles, they most often kept their firearm
readily available on their person, or, less often,
under the seat. In residences, most stashed their
weapon under a pillow, on a nightstand, under the
mattress--somewhere within immediate reach while in
bed.

Almost all carried when on the move and strong
majorities did so when socializing, committing crimes
or being at home. About one-third brought weapons with
them to work. Interestingly, the offenders in this
study more commonly admitted having guns under all
these circumstances than did offenders interviewed in
the researchers’ earlier 2 surveys, conducted in the
1980s and ’90s.

According to Davis, “Male offenders said time and time
again that female officers tend to search them more
thoroughly than male officers. In prison, most of the
offenders were more afraid to carry contraband or
weapons when a female CO was on duty.”

On the street, however, both male and female officers
too often regard female subjects “as less of a threat,
assuming that they not going to have a gun,” Davis
said. In truth, the researchers concluded that more
female offenders are armed today than 20 years
ago--“not just female gang associates, but female
offenders generally.”

Shooting Style

Twenty-six of the offenders [about 60%], including all
of the street combat veterans, “claimed to be
instinctive shooters, pointing and firing the weapon
without consciously aligning the sights,” the study
says.

“They practice getting the gun out and using it,”
Davis explained. “They shoot for effect.” Or as one of
the offenders put it: “[W]e’re not working with no
marksmanship….We just putting it in your direction,
you know….It don’t matter…as long as it’s gonna hit
you…if it’s up at your head or your chest, down at
your legs, whatever….Once I squeeze and you fall,
then…if I want to execute you, then I could go from
there.”

Hit Rate

More often than the officers they attacked, offenders
delivered at least some rounds on target in their
encounters. Nearly 70% of assailants were successful
in that regard with handguns, compared to about 40% of
the victim officers, the study found. (Efforts of
offenders and officers to get on target were
considered successful if any rounds struck, regardless
of the number fired.)

Davis speculated that the offenders might have had an
advantage because in all but 3 cases they fired first,
usually catching the officer by surprise. Indeed, the
report points out, “10 of the total victim officers
had been wounded [and thus impaired] before they
returned gunfire at their attackers.”

Missed Cues

Officers would less likely be caught off guard by
attackers if they were more observant of indicators of
concealed weapons, the study concludes. These
particularly include manners of dress, ways of moving
and unconscious gestures often related to carrying.

“Officers should look for unnatural protrusions or
bulges in the waist, back and crotch areas,” the study
says, and watch for “shirts that appear rippled or
wavy on one side of the body while the fabric on the
other side appears smooth.” In warm weather,
multilayered clothing inappropriate to the temperature
may be a giveaway. On cold or rainy days, a subject’s
jacket hood may not be covering his head because it is
being used to conceal a handgun.

Because they eschew holsters, offenders reported
frequently touching a concealed gun with hands or arms
“to assure themselves that it is still hidden, secure
and accessible” and hasn’t shifted. Such gestures are
especially noticeable “whenever individuals change
body positions, such as standing, sitting or exiting a
vehicle.” If they run, they may need to keep a
constant grip on a hidden gun to control it.

Just as cops generally blade their body to make their
sidearm less accessible, armed criminals “do the same
in encounters with LEOs to ensure concealment and easy
access.”

An irony, Davis noted, is that officers who are
assigned to look for concealed weapons, while working
off-duty security at night clubs for instance, are
often highly proficient at detecting them. “But then
when they go back to the street without that specific
assignment, they seem to ‘turn off’ that skill,” and
thus are startled--sometimes fatally--when a suspect
suddenly produces a weapon and attacks.

Mind-set

Thirty-six of the 50 officers in the study had
“experienced hazardous situations where they had the
legal authority” to use deadly force “but chose not to
shoot.” They averaged 4 such prior incidents before
the encounters that the researchers investigated. “It
appeared clear that none of these officers were
willing to use deadly force against an offender if
other options were available,” the researchers
concluded.

The offenders were of a different mind-set entirely.
In fact, Davis said the study team “did not realize
how cold blooded the younger generation of offender
is. They have been exposed to killing after killing,
they fully expect to get killed and they don’t
hesitate to shoot anybody, including a police officer.
They can go from riding down the street saying what a
beautiful day it is to killing in the next instant.”

“Offenders typically displayed no moral or ethical
restraints in using firearms,” the report states. “In
fact, the street combat veterans survived by
developing a shoot-first mentality.

“Officers never can assume that a criminal is unarmed
until they have thoroughly searched the person and the
surroundings themselves.” Nor, in the interest of
personal safety, can officers “let their guards down
in any type of law enforcement situation.”
 

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exile

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I don't want to attribute views to him that he might not agree with, but I think Drac has been telling us things, based on his own `insider' observations as a working LEO, that are completely consistent with these findings.

The solution is obvious—more training and practice for LEOs, better simulations and so on—but as Drac has pointed out in several threads, that's the part of the budget that gets the ax first. Maybe this kind of hard-result study will change some attitudes where they most need changing at the top of the law enforcement bureaucracy... maybe.
 

stone_dragone

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I would imagine that the Law Enforcement community suffers from the same disease that the Military at large does...bullets cost money. The resources required to provide adequate training and skill currency to (both) the soldiers (and Law Enforcement officials, I'd assume) are often limited.

Any LEO is invited to correct me if I am misrepresenting them.
 

terryl965

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I don't want to attribute views to him that he might not agree with, but I think Drac has been telling us things, based on his own `insider' observations as a working LEO, that are completely consistent with these findings.

The solution is obvious—more training and practice for LEOs, better simulations and so on—but as Drac has pointed out in several threads, that's the part of the budget that gets the ax first. Maybe this kind of hard-result study will change some attitudes where they most need changing at the top of the law enforcement bureaucracy... maybe.


I agree
 

Drac

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I don't want to attribute views to him that he might not agree with, but I think Drac has been telling us things, based on his own `insider' observations as a working LEO, that are completely consistent with these findings.

The solution is obvious—more training and practice for LEOs, better simulations and so on—but as Drac has pointed out in several threads, that's the part of the budget that gets the ax first. Maybe this kind of hard-result study will change some attitudes where they most need changing at the top of the law enforcement bureaucracy... maybe.

You are correct my friend..Training is always the FIRST budget to get cut..As far as officers seeking additional training on their own, don't hold your breath..As one told me it would interfear with his bowling night..I'm going to send this page to a few of the higher ups in hopes they will read it, right after they return from their lastest class on "How To Be a More Effective Supervisor"....
 
OP
Rich Parsons

Rich Parsons

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You are correct my friend..Training is always the FIRST budget to get cut..As far as officers seeking additional training on their own, don't hold your breath..As one told me it would interfear with his bowling night..I'm going to send this page to a few of the higher ups in hopes they will read it, right after they return from their lastest class on "How To Be a More Effective Supervisor"....

I could recommend some managers to be "runners" on the range for your target shooting. ;) It would be nice if training was taken more seriously in all jobs/career positions.
 

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