That sounds like a lot of unintentional discharges
In several cases, an officer accidentally fired his weapon.
Instructor Kathy Daniel said it's hard to determine what the most common mistake is when looking at accidental discharges.
"We just don't have that many," she said.This year four have been reported.
Kathy I might point out that putting fingers on triggers when one shouldn't are likely your biggest problem
That is a lot of negligent discharges. The department I work for has had 3 in 25 years.
ReplyDeleteThey perhaps need new instrutors
ReplyDeleteBrings to mind an incident from my youth. I had friends who were attending California State University, Long Beach, back in the early 80's, when a student who had been expelled for bad grades came on campus with a guy, and shot at the dean through the window of the guy's office. He didn't hit anything, and fled, chased by the campus police, who fired their revolvers at him, a lot, and completely missed him. He eventually surrendered.
ReplyDeleteThe cops were then asked why they'd shot at the guy so much without hitting him. Six of the officers had emptied revolvers (literally) at the guy without one hit. The campus police spokesperson said...well, I'll just quote the headline of the campus newspaper the next morning: "36 Warning shots????!!!" As a weird aside, a couple of friends of mine who hadn't seen each other in years reintroduced themselves while hiding in the restroom during this incident...
Anyway, it's nice to see the cops are still good at not being good at being cops...
My brother, a long time state trooper, likes to relate the story of a colleague after a routine-seeming traffic stop turned bad.
ReplyDeleteThe trooper [very well-trained and a veteran police officer] pulled over a vehicle onto a rural gravel road.
As he approached the vehicle, the driver stuck a pistol out the window and fired at least one shot at the trooper, hitting his clipboard [which, per regs he was holding in front of him for just such an occasion].
The suspect car roared off, the trooper dropped the clipboard and pulled his Beretta 9 mm and emptied the clip. Didn't hit the car once.
Adrenaline does funny things.
;->=
A lot of state and local departments simply don't train enough due to budgetary constraints - it cost a hell of a lot in ammo and time spent from policing to do so.
ReplyDeleteFeds train/qualify four times a year, while some state and local departments do it once a year.