.FrankFigliuzzi1: What this police chief is doing may get even more people killed — including his own officers.
to die at the hands of a police officer. But Dekmar’s attempt to turn a gun, an inherently deadly weapon, into something less than lethal is wrong for at least three reasons.
First, only the wealthiest municipalities in America might have a budget that would allow for the kind of training, re-training and skill maintenance needed to teach officers to successfully aim at and hit smaller targets under specifically identified circumstances.; increased time at the firearms range takes officers off the streets and can drain overtime budgets; and training officers on the controversial new method would require finding instructors who could first learn it, then do it.
Regarding Dekmar's proposal, The Washington Post reported:"While such a policy might be supported by the public, explained John B. Edwards of the Peace Officers Association of Georgia, most agencies would find it impossible to implement."Second, even if unlimited training budgets abounded, the luxury of aiming at stationary targets in firing range conditions simply doesn’t exist on the street.
Third, “shooting to incapacitate” will likely lead to more shootings, not fewer. If officers are taught that their gun is now a less-than-lethal option, they could use that gun more and simply say, “I only shot him in the leg.” The imprecision caused by the reality on the street — when adrenaline is pumping, sirens are blaring and hearts are racing — would surely cause police firing rounds at appendages to miss and strike innocent bystanders.
As well-intentioned as “shoot to incapacitate” might be, it is a distraction from identifying and addressing the steps needed to reduce the number of shootings by police. We should be recruiting and training officer candidates who have the capacity to de-escalate potentially violent encounters through well-proven verbal techniques. We should be vetting police applicants to find those who are less likely to default to violence, racially driven biases and extremist ideologies.
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