Part 1 of a 2-part series Amid the myriad pressures that inevitably arise after an officer-involved shooting, how does a law enforcement agency assure that its investigation of the event is fair, neutral and fact-finding in nature? One protocol for reaching that goal was offered recently by a well-known National Advisory Board member of the...Read More
Nearly 8,000 rounds fired by Los Angeles County (CA) sheriff’s deputies have now conclusively proved what the Force Science Research Center first asserted more than 2 years ago: The single greatest influence on where spent shell casings land when ejected from a semiautomatic handgun is how the pistol is physically manipulated by the shooter, not...Read More
An expanded study of shell casing ejection patterns, with important legal implications for law enforcement, has just been completed by the Force Science Research Center, with cooperation of the Los Angeles County (CA) Sheriff’s Dept. Details and an analysis will be reported in the next issue of Force Science News, but FSRC Executive Director Bill...Read More
As an off-duty or retired LEO, you have a fundamental decision to make whenever you pack for an out-of-state trip these days: Should you bring a gun? Generally speaking, you can. The federal Law Enforcement Officers Safety Act of 2004, effective since last summer, provides that any “qualified” active or retired peace officer may carry...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
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
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
