A DEA special agent and former township SWAT officer who was indicted for first-degree manslaughter after killing a suspect who was fighting to grab the officer’s gun has been vindicated by a federal appeals court, thanks in part to studies by the Force Science Research Center. A grand jury in Brooklyn (NY) indicted the agent,...Read More
The largest study of its kind has confirmed that LEOs commonly experience a wide and potentially “devastating” range of mental and emotional reactions to life-threatening encounters. But they show such remarkable resilience in bouncing back that, contrary to popular belief, very few actually leave law enforcement or suffer permanent damage from their traumatic encounters. The...Read More
Do experienced, survival-savvy cops visually dissect and evaluate a potentially deadly scene differently than inexperienced or unaware officers or civilians? Certainly seems logical…and now researchers are about to find out not only whether that’s really true but also exactly how the best cops’ eyes seek and track danger cues. What they learn about the specifics...Read More
You’re trained that the surest way to prevent an unintentional discharge is to keep your finger outside the trigger guard until you’ve made the decision to shoot. But under stress, will you–can you–reliably do that? Maybe not, according to a study of police performance under realistic conditions. Indeed, a significant percentage of officers not only...Read More
How can an officer in a gunfight be looking at their sights and not see and respond instantly to a change in a subject’s behavior? Why couldn’t the officer see the other person? He has to be lying when he said he didn’t see the person drop the gun! Why can’t he tell us how...Read More
