A closer look at police officers who have fired their weapon on duty

There are some things that the survey does not take into consideration which makes the study flawed. Where in the city an officer worked. You don't put the touchy feelly officers on the Bricks (Housing Projects). They go to DARE and citizen outreach programs. Aggressive officers that train, are situationally aware, and are able to hold their own usually end up in the places where things go bump in the middle of the night. Those guys are more likely to have to use their sidearm. Police officers are not all cut from the same cloth. Some are born detectives, some are admin, others are highway, patrol, SWAT, or drug interdiction. The odds of a DARE officer using there gun compared to a SWAT guy are like night and day. They are giving the same amount of weight to a rookie officer as a officer with 20 years on. The amount of experience and training is not even comparable for these different officers. A seasoned officer may have many other options other than just a gun because of his experience. By lumping all police officers into one batch then trying to pull the ones out that may use a firearm in the line of duty the study is flawed. There has to be things taken into consideration like patrol areas (not just city size), jobs they are doing while working, the amount of training, and time in service. Then there may actually be some merit to the information.

Interesting Article...