Citation

Petersson U, Bertilsson J, Fredriksson P, Magnusson M, Fransson PA. Police Pract. Res. 2017; 18(3): 306-321.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/15614263.2017.1291592

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The study analyzed the situational characteristics of 112 incidents where police used firearms to handle high threat situations. Most shooting incidents emanated from usually uneventful tasks, e.g., handling burglaries or disturbances. The assailants were commonly armed with firearms (26%), sharp (27%) or blunt objects (10%). The incidents were regularly short-lasting (in 39% were shots fired 3s from threat emerged) and occurred at short distances (in 42% at distances 3m). Predominantly, the first responders had to address the situation and did so with warning shots or, equally common, with fire-for-effect shots (40%) or a combination thereof. Psychological stress was manifested as feelings of panic at some point and as motor skill alterations, e.g., firing without using sights and with one hand only. Analysis of these incidents shows that all field duty police officers should receive training in handling potentially life-threatening, sudden, close-range attacks.

Language: en