Police Firearms Training - The Need for Change, Part 1 - Where We Are Today

• NCJ Number: 93846
• Journal: Police Marksman Volume: 9 Issue: 2 Dated: (March/April 1984) Pages: 4-11
• Author(s): R E Fairburn
• Date Published: 1984
• Length: 7 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: *This document is currently unavailable from NCJRS.

Annotation

A survey of police officers and review of statistical studies on police deaths indicate that police officers are not highly satisfied with the firearms training they receive and that such training needs considerable improvement.

Abstract

No real decreases in the number of officers killed each year points out the need for more and better firearms training. Major problems appear to lie in the officer's ability to fire accurately while under fire, bad tactics when dealing with a potentially dangerous situation, and mental attitudes. Virtually all police recruits today receive marksmanship training, but most instructors ignore mental conditioning and tactics. A review of law enforcement training shows that nearly all police officers were and continue to be trained along lines first developed by the FBI in the 1930's. Moreover, firing stance, course of fire, targets, and weapons used in training have changed little since the 1960's. Responses to a survey questionnaire mailed to 104 street and training police officers showed that nearly one-half of the respondents were not completely happy with their service sidearms and that 30 percent would like to change from a revolver to a semiautomatic pistol. Two-thirds of the sample wished to take some outside training course in firearms. Training officers were generally pleased with their programs of initial and refresher training, but working police officers were considerably less satisfied. A New York Police Department study of all shootings in the city since 1970 found that in times of stress, officers invariably resorted to techniques they had learned in training. The police officers involved scored about 25 percent hits from the rounds they fired on the street. The study concluded that an officer's chances of survival are greatly improved by a realistic training program that focuses on response procedures, tactics, and situational use of weapons. Tables and graphs are supplied.