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."
NOTE: For new findings from the FBI researchers
about highly dangerous suicide-by-
cop confrontations, read the exclusive 2-part
report by Force Science Research Center board
member Chuck Remsberg
here.
