NCJ Number
204272
Date Published
2004
Length
299 pages
Annotation
This book, written by a former police officer, deals with police use of deadly force and discusses what happens when police officers find themselves face-to-face with dangerous criminals, the decisions they have to make to shoot or hold their fire, and how they deal with the consequences of their choices.
Abstract
The introduction of this book begins with the author’s recounting of his shooting of a suspect, which eventually led to the writing of this book. When the author left the police force in 1984, he found that no thorough research on officers’ reactions during and after shootings had been conducted, so what was known about these topics was quite limited. With the help of a grant from the U.S. Department of Justice, the author interviewed 80 officers from 19 different police departments spread across 4 States. The officers were asked about their lives before they became involved in law enforcement, their experiences during academy and field training, instances in which they believed they had cause to shoot someone but held their fire, situations in which they did shoot people, and what took place in the aftermath of these shootings. The book is divided into five chapters and each chapter consists of collections of stories that are presented in the words of the officers who recounted them. The stories were selected because they provide a set of accounts that represent the major themes that emerged during the author’s research. The first chapter deals with officers’ expectations about the use of deadly force before they came on the job, while the second chapter addresses officers’ experiences during academy and field training and how these experiences shaped their attitudes about using deadly force. The third chapter focuses on cases in which officers hold their fire when shooting would have been legally permissible, while the fourth chapter is devoted to shootings. The final chapter of the book depicts what occurs in the wake of shootings and how involvement in shootings affects officers who pull the trigger. Glossary and notes