Police Shootings
Police officers seldom fire their weapons, rarely wound or kill their intended targets when they do fire, and sometimes shoot themselves or other officers unintentionally. Still, firearms are a valuable weapon to aid law enforcement officers. Justifiable homicide means a felon is killed in an attempt to prevent the death of the officer or to prevent serious bodily injury to another person. Table 5.13 shows the number of justifiable homicides by law enforcement during the period from 1998 to 2002. Out of 339 justifiable homicides in 2002, 335 were committed with firearms: 294 with handguns, seven with shotguns, eighteen with rifles, and sixteen with unspecified firearms. Four were done with knives or another dangerous weapon. Police justifiably kill an average of nearly 400 felons each year, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ). The DOJ does not collect statistics on police killings in which the officer used excessive force or may have committed a crime.
The DOJ has identified five key factors associated with fatal police shootings:
- commission of a serious criminal offense
- use of alcohol or other drugs
- presence of a mental disorder or irrational behavior
- existence of actions that officers can easily misinterpret, such as pointing a toy gun
- occurrence of victim-precipitated homicide (incidents in which an individual forces police to kill him or her)
A Tool to Detect Gunfire
Some law enforcement officers, especially those who work in cities plagued by gangs and random shootings, have spoken of the frustration they feel when responding to reports of gunfire. Because it is difficult for the human ear to determine the direction from which gunshot originates, callers cannot locate the source accurately and police officers are sometimes unable to respond appropriately. This increases the chance of serious injury or death to victims. Once police finally arrive on the scene, the person with the gun may be already gone.
To help locate the source of gunfire to within twenty feet, acoustic sensors—devices similar to those used to detect earthquake epicenters—can be used. Redwood City, California, became one of the first communities to employ them, in June 1996. Mounted on buildings and telephone poles throughout the city, the sensors transmit the time of the gunshots to a central computer that displays the location. This allows police to respond to gunfire before police dispatchers begin to get phone calls reporting the shots. According to field tests conducted by the Redwood City Police Department, the sensors identified gunfire locations within seconds. A 1999 study by the National Institute of Justice (NIJ, part of the U.S. Department of Justice) noted that such systems are not likely to result in more arrests of people randomly firing weapons in urban settings, because the offenders do not tend to stay around long enough for the police to arrive. As a result, the sensors will merely increase the workloads of police officers, the report concludes. However, because random gunfire "hotspots" are underreported, police can use the systems to identify and develop strategies to deal with spots where guns are frequently fired.
Targeted Patrols Reduce Gun Crime
Faced with rising rates of violent crime in the early 1990s, Kansas City was the first to experiment with the use of directed patrols to reduce violent crime. The experiment was conducted by Lawrence W. Sherman and his colleagues ("The Kansas City Gun Experiment," Research in Brief, Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice, 1995, NCJ 150855; and L.W. Sherman and D. P. Rogan, "The Effects of Gun Seizures on Gun Violence: 'Hot Spots' Patrol in Kansas City," Justice Quarterly, vol. 12, no. 4, 1995). Kansas City police officers were trained to search for illegal guns, and then they increased traffic enforcement in a police beat with high levels of violent crime. Their efforts led to a 65% increase in seizures of illegal firearms. This in turn was associated with a 50% decrease in gun-related crime in the targeted area. Indianapolis has also had success with this type of program.
Police and "Smart Gun" Technology
Most police officers are armed with high-powered weaponry. To ensure officer safety, NIJ would like to see law enforcement officers equipped with better weapons, socalled "smart guns" that are more reliable than the weapons currently available. The National Institute of Justice has provided funding for the research and development of a Secure Weapon System; by late 1999 a system had been developed that used radio frequency to identify and approve the shooter before the weapon could be fired. As of 2004, technical problems remained and it was not known when the perfected system will be available. Meanwhile, gun control advocates fear that when such weapons become available to the general public, guns will be seen as safe enough to leave lying around the house and gun sales will grow. Gun owners say the new technology, which ought to be dictated by the market and not by legislatures, will make weapons less reliable and more expensive. Some contend that the safety measures to be provided are an encroachment on gun owners' rights and "smart technology" is just the first step in banning handguns that do not use the technology.
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