Are law enforcement officials encouraged to wound or shoot to kill?

Question

I will be attending a law enforcement academy very soon, but I just got off a year in Baghdad...and would like to discern the difference.

Answer 1

Police are trained to "shoot to stop" the suspect's unlawful action. They are trained to shoot center of body mass for two reasons:

1 It gives you the greatest chance to hit the target, given that both shooter and target are usually moving, and

2 It gives you the best chance to make the subject stop what they are trying to do quickly.

The only lawful reason to shoot someone is that what they are doing is SO dangerous, and presents an immediate, lethal danger to the Officer, some innocent person, or the public at large that they must be stopped RIGHT NOW. AND there is no other reasonable way to stop them before they finish whatever it is that they are doing.

In the civilian/police world, unlike a soldier on a battlefield, we shoot to stop a person, not to kill them. Yes, shooting center body mass has a good chance of killing them, but that is not the purpose, stopping them is. Consider:

Someone is running at me with an axe, intent on chopping me into bits. I shoot them, they take another two steps, bury the axe in my chest, and fall over dead, as do I. I LOST.

Same situation, I shoot them, they drop the axe, and fall down. I call an ambulance, and they make a complete recovery. (And stand trial, of course) I WIN. I stopped him, not killed him. Now, if he drops the axe, and falls down and also dies, I still won. But I won because I stopped him, not because he died. See the difference?

In America, if you shoot someone with the intention of killing them, it is legally called "Murder". The distinction may seem trivial, but I assuer you, it is not.

Answer 2

One thing no one has pointed out is what exactly "center mass" is. Of course, when you can see the whole body and it's facing you (like a silhoutette target), the "center mass" happens to be the center chest area. This is great because there are lots of vital organs in that area.

However, stop and think about the following:
1. The bad guy is in another room, sticking a gun out a doorway. You can only see their hand as they hold the gun and their knee.
2. Bad guy is wearing a ballistic (bullet resistant) vest. Chest shots won't work too well.
3. Bad guy holes up in the basement. You can only see his head from the outside of the house.

These situations illustrate the adapative definition of "center mass," THE CENTER OF THE BEST AVAILABLE TARGET.

Answer 3

Neither, they are trained to shoot always at center mass.

You are never to try to shoot a gun from someones hand, or shoot thier arm. The only time you would shoot thier leg or foot, is if they are standing behind a car and you shoot under the car to knock them down..

They also do not ever refer to it as shoot to kill ( although that is what it is) but for public relations it is always to shoot center mass, where you largest and best target is. This is also the trouble they had when the suspects had on body armour and was shooting up a area some years ago. No one shoot for the legs with little armour but keep shooting center mass

Answer 4

Well, if you are military trained, you know that the term is to "neutralize" the enemy or to "cause the enemy to become a casualty". They mean the same thing. They don't mean to kill anyone. That is not the purpose of war, nor is it the purpose of law enforcement.

There are instances where there is no choice, and then "kill or be killed" kicks in, also "the quick and the dead". Hope you are smart enough and quick enough to discern the difference when the time comes.

Answer 5

For a police officer to use his/her weapon, the person they are using it against must at that time pose an imminent threat to the life of that officer or some other person.

For that reason, we are trained to shoot to "elminate the threat." The only way to positively eliminate the threat is to kill the person posing the threat. If after the shooting, the person survives, they got lucky.

But shooting to wound is a sure way to get yourself or someone else killed. If you shoot them in the leg or arm, they have time to shoot you or someone else. So when we shoot, we aim for center mass, also known as the DRT (Dead Right There) Zone.

Answer 6

If an officer finds himself in the position of having to use his firearm there is no such thing as shooting to wound. Police are taught to shoot for center mass, that's the chest area.

They are schooled in how to avoid such situations and they have a scale of what type of behaviour deserves what type of response. Most police officers are equipped with a variety of weapons used to either defend themselves or pacify violent individuals. These include Clubs, Mag-lites, Snakes (telescoping metal rods), Tasers and Firearms.

Answer 7

IF YOU SHOOT YOU SHOOT AT CENTER MASS (HEART,LUNGS, SPINE) THAT WOULD DO THE JOB BUT IN INSTANCES YOU SHOOT WHERE YOU NEED TO TO DIFFUSE THE SITUATION; A SUSPECT WEARING BODY ARMOR WOULD HAVE TO BE SHOT IN THE HEAD; DURING THE NORTH HOLLYWOOD SHOOTOUT IN 1994 LAPD SWAT TOOK OUT ONE SUSPECTS LEGS TO TAKE HIM DOWN; A NORTH CAROLINA SWAT OFFICER EMPTIED A COLT M4 INTO A SUSPECTS PELVIS BECAUSE HE WAS STILL WALKING AFTER NUMEROUS WOUNDS TO THE CHEST (THANK YOU PCP) ABOVE ALL IF YOU EVER GET INTO A SITUATION LIKE THAT THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IS THAT IF IT COMES DOWN TO YOU OR HIM; WHO WOULD YOU RATHER GO HOME AT THE END OF THE SHIFT?

Answer 8

Tyrsson58 nailed it perfectly. We are trained to "shoot to stop". I won't even try to top his answer. Give the man his 10 points.

Answer 9

Shoot to kill. AIm center of mass. Popping someone in the leg or shoulder on purpose is only done in the movies...........

Answer 10

I think you can only shoot someone if they are shooting or pointing a gun at someone (meaning lives are in danger). If someone shoots people, drops the gun and runs, you can't shoot him because no one else is being threatened,