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FBI
studied bad guys who shot at cops
posted from http://www.forcescience.org/
New findings on how offenders train with,
carry and deploy the weapons they use to attack police officers have emerged in
a just-published, 5-year study by the FBI.
Among other things, the data reveal that most
would-be cop killers:
* show signs of being armed that officers
miss;
* have more experience using deadly force in
“street combat” than their intended victims;
* practice with firearms more often and shoot
more accurately;
* have no hesitation whatsoever about pulling
the trigger. "If you hesitate," one told the study’s researchers, "you’re dead.
You have the instinct or you don’t. If you don’t, you’re in trouble on the
street..."
These and other weapons-related findings
comprise one chapter in a 180-page research summary called "Violent Encounters:
A Study of Felonious Assaults on Our Nation's Law Enforcement Officers." The
study is the third in a series of long investigations into fatal and nonfatal
attacks on POs by the FBI team of Dr. Anthony Pinizzotto, clinical forensic
psychologist, and Ed Davis, criminal investigative instructor, both with the
Bureau’s Behavioral Science Unit, and Charles Miller III, coordinator of the
LEOs Killed and Assaulted program.
"Violent Encounters" also reports in detail
on the personal characteristics of attacked officers and their assaulters, the
role of perception in life-threatening confrontations, the myths of memory that
can hamper OIS investigations, the suicide-by-cop phenomenon, current training
issues, and other matters relevant to officer survival. (Force Science News and
our strategic partner PoliceOne.com will be reporting on more findings from this
landmark study in future transmissions.)
Commenting on the broad-based study, Dr. Bill
Lewinski, executive director of the Force Science Research Center at Minnesota
State University-Mankato, called it "very challenging and insightful--important
work that only a handful of gifted and experienced researchers could
accomplish."
From a pool of more than 800 incidents, the
researchers selected 40, involving 43 offenders (13 of them admitted gangbangers-drug
traffickers) and 50 officers, for in-depth exploration. They visited crime
scenes and extensively interviewed surviving officers and attackers alike, most
of the latter in prison.
Here are highlights of what they learned
about weapon selection, familiarity, transport and use by criminals attempting
to murder cops, a small portion of the overall research:
Weapon Choice:
Predominately handguns were used in the
assaults on officers and all but one were obtained illegally, usually in street
transactions or in thefts. In contrast to media myth, none of the firearms in
the study was obtained from gun shows. What was available "was the overriding
factor in weapon choice," the report says. Only 1 offender hand-picked a
particular gun "because he felt it would do the most damage to a human being."
Researcher Davis, in a presentation and
discussion for the International Assn. of Chiefs of Police, noted that none of
the attackers interviewed was "hindered by any law--federal, state or
local--that has ever been established to prevent gun ownership. They just
laughed at gun laws."
Familiarity:
Several of the offenders began regularly to
carry weapons when they were 9 to 12 years old, although the average age was 17
when they first started packing "most of the time." Gang members especially
started young.
Nearly 40% of the offenders had some type of
formal firearms training, primarily from the military. More than 80% "regularly
practiced with handguns, averaging 23 practice sessions a year," the study
reports, usually in informal settings like trash dumps, rural woods, back yards
and "street corners in known drug-trafficking areas."
One spoke of being motivated to improve his
gun skills by his belief that officers "go to the range two, three times a week
[and] practice arms so they can hit anything."
In reality, victim officers in the study
averaged just 14 hours of sidearm training and 2.5 qualifications per year. Only
6 of the 50 officers reported practicing regularly with handguns apart from what
their department required, and that was mostly in competitive shooting. Overall,
the offenders practiced more often than the officers they assaulted, and this
"may have helped increase [their] marksmanship skills," the study says.
The offender quoted above about his practice
motivation, for example, fired 12 rounds at an officer, striking him 3 times.
The officer fired 7 rounds, all misses.
More than 40% of the offenders had been
involved in actual shooting confrontations before they feloniously assaulted an
officer. Ten of these "street combat veterans," all from "inner-city,
drug-trafficking environments," had taken part in 5 or more "criminal firefight
experiences" in their lifetime.
One reported that he was 14 when he was first
shot on the street, "about 18 before a cop shot me." Another said getting shot
was a pivotal experience "because I made up my mind no one was gonna shoot me
again."
Again in contrast, only 8 of the 50 LEO
victims had participated in a prior shooting; 1 had been involved in 2
previously, another in 3. Seven of the 8 had killed offenders.
Concealment:
The offenders said they most often hid guns
on their person in the front waistband, with the groin area and the small of the
back nearly tied for second place. Some occasionally gave their weapons to
another person to carry, "most often a female companion." None regularly used a
holster, and about 40% at least sometimes carried a backup weapon.
In motor vehicles, they most often kept their
firearm readily available on their person, or, less often, under the seat. In
residences, most stashed their weapon under a pillow, on a nightstand, under the
mattress--somewhere within immediate reach while in bed.
Almost all carried when on the move and
strong majorities did so when socializing, committing crimes or being at home.
About one-third brought weapons with them to work. Interestingly, the offenders
in this study more commonly admitted having guns under all these circumstances
than did offenders interviewed in the researchers' earlier 2 surveys, conducted
in the 1980s and '90s.
According to Davis, "Male offenders said time
and time again that female officers tend to search them more thoroughly than
male officers. In prison, most of the offenders were more afraid to carry
contraband or weapons when a female CO was on duty."
On the street, however, both male and female
officers too often regard female subjects "as less of a threat, assuming that
they not going to have a gun," Davis said. In truth, the researchers concluded
that more female offenders are armed today than 20 years ago--"not just female
gang associates, but female offenders generally."
Shooting Style:
Twenty-six of the offenders [about 60%],
including all of the street combat veterans, "claimed to be instinctive
shooters, pointing and firing the weapon without consciously aligning the
sights," the study says.
"They practice getting the gun out and using
it," Davis explained. "They shoot for effect." Or as one of the offenders put
it: "[W]e're not working with no marksmanship... We just putting it in your
direction, you know... It don't matter... as long as it's gonna hit you…if it's
up at your head or your chest, down at your legs, whatever... Once I squeeze and
you fall, then... if I want to execute you, then I could go from there."
Hit Rate:
More often than the officers they attacked,
offenders delivered at least some rounds on target in their encounters. Nearly
70% of assailants were successful in that regard with handguns, compared to
about 40% of the victim officers, the study found. (Efforts of offenders and
officers to get on target were considered successful if any rounds struck,
regardless of the number fired.)
Davis speculated that the offenders might
have had an advantage because in all but 3 cases they fired first, usually
catching the officer by surprise. Indeed, the report points out, "10 of the
total victim officers had been wounded [and thus impaired] before they returned
gunfire at their attackers."
Missed Cues:
Officers would less likely be caught off
guard by attackers if they were more observant of indicators of concealed
weapons, the study concludes. These particularly include manners of dress, ways
of moving and unconscious gestures often related to carrying.
"Officers should look for unnatural
protrusions or bulges in the waist, back and crotch areas," the study says, and
watch for "shirts that appear rippled or wavy on one side of the body while the
fabric on the other side appears smooth." In warm weather, multilayered clothing
inappropriate to the temperature may be a giveaway. On cold or rainy days, a
subject's jacket hood may not be covering his head because it is being used to
conceal a handgun.
Because they eschew holsters, offenders
reported frequently touching a concealed gun with hands or arms "to assure
themselves that it is still hidden, secure and accessible" and hasn’t shifted.
Such gestures are especially noticeable "whenever individuals change body
positions, such as standing, sitting or exiting a vehicle." If they run, they
may need to keep a constant grip on a hidden gun to control it.
Just as cops generally blade their body to
make their sidearm less accessible, armed criminals "do the same in encounters
with LEOs to ensure concealment and easy access."
An irony, Davis noted, is that officers who
are assigned to look for concealed weapons, while working off-duty security at
night clubs for instance, are often highly proficient at detecting them. "But
then when they go back to the street without that specific assignment, they seem
to 'turn off' that skill," and thus are startled--sometimes fatally--when a
suspect suddenly produces a weapon and attacks.
Mind-set:
Thirty-six of the 50 officers in the study
had "experienced hazardous situations where they had the legal authority" to use
deadly force "but chose not to shoot." They averaged 4 such prior incidents
before the encounters that the researchers investigated. "It appeared clear that
none of these officers were willing to use deadly force against an offender if
other options were available," the researchers concluded.
The offenders were of a different mind-set
entirely. In fact, Davis said the study team "did not realize how cold blooded
the younger generation of offender is. They have been exposed to killing after
killing, they fully expect to get killed and they don't hesitate to shoot
anybody, including a police officer. They can go from riding down the street
saying what a beautiful day it is to killing in the next instant."
"Offenders typically displayed no moral or
ethical restraints in using firearms," the report states. "In fact, the street
combat veterans survived by developing a shoot-first mentality."
"Officers never can assume that a criminal is
unarmed until they have thoroughly searched the person and the surroundings
themselves." Nor, in the interest of personal safety, can officers "let their
guards down in any type of law enforcement situation."
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