Are police officers trained to keep shooting once they start?

Answer 1

We shoot until the threat is stopped.
This usually means that the bad guy has dropped the weapon.

There are a couple of inaccurate answers up here:
-We don't shoot to kill, if the bad guy drops the gun after one shot then we stop.
-We shoot at center of mass (not center of chest). That means that you shoot at the largest part showing (which often is the chest). So if someone is shooting at you from behind a building the center of mass might be his/her head.

Answer 2

I hope this isn't too long. Having said that though, law enforcement officers in the U.S. are trained to fire their weapons to stop the threat. If the threat continues then they continue firing until it does stop.

There are a lot of factors to consider when describing how long it takes (how many rounds) to stop a threat. The size of the subject (body fat can reduce the effectiveness of certain rounds), age, physical condition, mental state, is there substance abuse, shot placement (not just in the torso but where in the torso can be a factor), the type of bullet, the type of cartridge (bullet+powder+casing), etc.

Officers are trained to shoot center of visible mass. This may mean the torso or any other body part visible. If the person's hiding behind someone else or a concrete wall and exposing on their head and firing hand, what would you shoot to stop them?

Most often center of mass is the torso and it is the preferred target because of several reasons. Handguns aren't as accurate as the movies claim. The torso is a large slow moving target so there is less chance of a miss. Hands, arms and legs are moving quickly and are small targets, wholly impractical for a primary target. Also, the torso is thick enough to provide a good chance of containing the rounds if hollow-points are used. This ensures 2 things; first that the energy of the bullet (it's inertia) is spent in the target and used to stop the threat instead of coming out the other side and expending that energy in a wall (hopefully) and second, to reduce the threat of hitting someone else that wasn't an intended target due to over-penetration.

When reading news articles you should remember that the media tries to amp everything up and make it as gory and controversial as possible. Consequently they will report the total number of rounds fired. Not all rounds will strike a threat in every instance. Take the recent NYPD shooting as an example. The threatening person was in a car. This reduces the available center of mass target drastically. I would hazard a guess that several of those rounds struck the vehicle and became lodged in the chassis.

If you are concerned then I would encourage you to apply pressure to your local agencies to increase funding for training. Shooting under stress causes a loss of manual dexterity that can be addressed through stress courses. However, typically civilian leadership hounds the department to see uniforms on the street and on a shoe-string budget. If the response times are too long then they want more officers on the street and less time training. The officers want to protect people, they don't want to shoot anyone.

Answer 3

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Answer 4

No. They are trained to return fire and to use the force necessary to protect themselves and the public. They are trained to aim for the center of the chest because it is the fastest way to put the suspect down and stop the gunfire.

Answer 5

No. They are trained to shoot until the threat has ended. If that is one shot, then it's one shot. If they a perp that is hopped up on meth and just keeps coming at them, they shoot until he stops.

Answer 6

No, they are trained to shoot to stop the threat if that requires more than one shot then they continue.

Answer 7

They are trained to shoot to kill. I once heard that the minimum shots is three. It's supposed to stop the first impulse thing.

Answer 8

I don't know, are criminals trained to keep shooting once THEY start?

Answer 9

I was trained to continue firing until the threat ceases. That could be either one or many rounds.

Answer 10

they are trained to kill if they start shooting... the whole "wound them" idea isnt reality ....