Articles
11 Years of Police Gunfire, in Painstaking Detail / New York Times
By AL BAKER
Published: May 8, 2008
New York City police officers fire their weapons far less often than they did a decade ago, a statistic that has dropped along with the crime rate. But when they do fire, even at an armed suspect, there is often no one returning fire at the officers. Officers hit their targets roughly 34 percent of the time.
N.Y.P.D.'s shooting reports and analysis from the N.Y.C.L.U.
When they fire at dogs, roughly 55 percent of shots hit home. Most of their targets are pit bulls, with a smattering of Rottweilers and German shepherds.
Officers’ guns go off unintentionally or by accident for a variety of reasons: wrestling with suspects, cleaning the weapons, leaning on holsters — even once, in 1996, when a gun was put in an oven for safekeeping.
While the drop in police shootings was already clear, the details were among the myriad facts included in 11 years’ worth of annual New York Police Department firearms-discharge reports that were, without fanfare, handed over to the City Council this week and earlier to the New York Civil Liberties Union.
Both groups have been examining the department’s methods of stopping and arresting suspects, sometimes for possession of illegal guns.
The reports cover the years 1996 to 2006, and are used as a training tool and to help officials develop “lesson plans.”
“Patterns and possible hazards are identified” from the statistics, the report adds.
Officer’s Fight for Life 9 Crucial Survival Lessons P4
Charles Remsberg
"By then," Milovich-Fitzsimmons says, "I think I was slipping into shock. I could hear voices but I couldn't respond to them or move or even open my eyes. And I couldn't stop shaking. I was vibrating from head to toe."
From the moment she radioed in the foot pursuit until the backup officer called in the fatal shooting, only 1 minute 45 seconds elapsed. What happened during that brief time "changed me tremendously," says Milovich-Fitzsimmons, whose husband and sister are Chicago P.D. sergeants. She enumerates the mistakes she believes she made and the lessons she learned:
Officer’s Fight for Life 9 Crucial Survival Lessons P3
Charles Remsberg
Blood streaming down his face, the attacker grabbed again at Milovich-Fitzsimmons' semiauto. She beat him with it, directly on his wound, but he was unfazed. He shoved her against a row of garbage cans and fled across the alley into a vacant field, which soon became the third-and worst-scene of the progressive fight.
Milovich-Fitzsimmons holstered and secured her S&W, took out her cuffs and went after him. When she caught up to him, he'd fallen to his hands and knees. "I thought, 'Game over' and I moved in to take him into custody. Color me wrong.
"All I could see were his wrists-major tunnel vision. I heard that voice in my head, Wrist…cuff." But when she got close, the suspect tackled her and although she beat him with the handcuffs, he took her to the ground. The cuffs flew from her hand.
Officer’s Fight for Life 9 Crucial Survival Lessons P 2
Charles Remsberg
First she caught up with him on a parkway along the street and shoved him to his hands and knees. She had hold of his coat but before she could get a body grip, he pushed up, easily pulled out of the jacket and took off again. "That's why gangbangers never wear their coats closed," she told PoliceOne. "And they tend to wear a couple, so if they wiggle out of one they still have an outer garment."
The foot chase continued down an "extremely dark" gangway between two bungalows. Milovich-Fitzsimmons caught the driver again in an alley behind some garages and pushed him against a wrought-iron fence. "Get down on the ground!" she yelled.
Instead, "he whips around and starts fighting." During the tussle, her shoulder mike popped off, swinging around her legs out of reach for calling for help.
Officer’s Fight for Life 9 Crucial Survival Lessons P1
Charles Remsberg
The 25-year-old gangbanger was a significant player in the life of Chicago P.D. Officer Candace Milovich-Fitzsimmons for less than two minutes. In that flicker of time she says he changed her approach to policing forever.
He wanted to kill her, she believes, but instead he was the one who died, leaving a legacy of lessons that she's convinced will help her survive for the remainder of her career-and can help other officers better face the mean streets as well.
"I didn't go looking for this," she told PoliceOne in an exclusive interview recently. "It found me."
If her sergeant had been a bit indulgent, she wouldn't have confronted those watershed moments at all.
America’s Independence Day
from Xiphos
An early morning ride on my Harley-Davidson revealed a town festooned in stars and stripes. I saw a couple of real stars, too. My local police department was working the streets, protecting me and mine on my day off. The Highway Patrol trooper that lives around the corner was headed toward the freeway to begin his shift. As I followed a patrol cruiser down the street, I was reminded that he and I and every law enforcement officer today honors the flag every day, not just on America's Independence Day. We honor the flag through fidelity to the Constitution of the United States of America.
Most folks just waking up on my street couldn't tell you about the Fourth Amendment to save their lives. But many cops that I know can recite all 54 words. The Fourth Amendment is the focus of Xiphos because the Fourth Amendment is the focus of a working cop's day. Those folks who don't quite remember the Fourth Amendment to save their lives are protected by men and women would give their lives to preserve constitutional freedoms.
"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. " Fifty-four simple words. Yet thousands and thousands of American warriors have solemnly sworn to give these words daily meaning. Thousand and thousands of American warriors have honorably died to preserve the rights promised by these few words.
Not Looking like Food
Bruce N. Eimer, Ph.D ( edited version )
If you look physically weak to a predatory criminal, you probably look like food to him. So, unless you want to be eaten, get strong, and don’t look like food! As Clint Smith says, refuse to be food and become willing to fight to keep from being food.
As a citizen, the reality is that you might not be not as strong, or as physically fit, as a bad to the bone, eighteen, twenty, or thirty something year-old animal in his prime. But, if you look weak, you will look vulnerable to Mr. Baddy. Additionally, if you suffer from physical maladies, or disabilities, you are in fact vulnerable; that is, unless you can balance or reduce your vulnerability with fighting tools and the skills to use them. So, reduce your vulnerability and don’t let yourself be a “dirt bag magnet”!
This is why the author thinks you should consider carrying a concealed firearm (or two) and consider keeping one (or several) firearms accessible for home defense. Both of these measures are forms of preparation should you encounter
If you look physically weak to a predatory criminal, you probably look like food to him. So, unless you want to be eaten, get strong, and don’t look like food! As Clint Smith says, refuse to be food and become willing to fight to keep from being food.
As a citizen, the reality is that you might not be not as strong, or as physically fit, as a bad to the bone, eighteen, twenty, or thirty something year-old animal in his prime. But, if you look weak, you will look vulnerable to Mr. Baddy. Additionally, if you suffer from physical maladies, or disabilities, you are in fact vulnerable; that is, unless you can balance or reduce your vulnerability with fighting tools and the skills to use them. So, reduce your vulnerability and don’t let yourself be a “dirt bag magnet”!
This is why the author thinks you should consider carrying a concealed firearm (or two) and consider keeping one (or several) firearms accessible for home defense. Both of these measures are forms of preparation should you encounter
Most criminal predators hunt for easy prey.
Bruce N. Eimer, Ph.D
“Senior Citizen Pulls Gun On Knife-Wielding Robber”
“A senior citizen using the men’s room yesterday at a popular Middletown eatery was approached by a would-be robber waving a knife. The potential victim responded by pulling out his own weapon - a handgun. A thin, white male between 25 and 30 years old tried to rob the 68-yearold Langhorne man about 9:30 a.m...Middletown Sgt. Ken Mellus said. The Langhorne man is licensed to carry the gun, police said. No shots were fired and the suspect fled...”
We can only speculate about the outcome had the intended victim been unarmed and unprepared. In this case, he was armed and hopefully prepared to use his handgun to defend himself if he had to. Fortunately, he didn’t have to. His would-be attacker probably decided that his would-be victim wasn’t going to be an easy target and wouldn’t be worth the trouble.
“Senior Citizen Pulls Gun On Knife-Wielding Robber”
“A senior citizen using the men’s room yesterday at a popular Middletown eatery was approached by a would-be robber waving a knife. The potential victim responded by pulling out his own weapon - a handgun. A thin, white male between 25 and 30 years old tried to rob the 68-yearold Langhorne man about 9:30 a.m...Middletown Sgt. Ken Mellus said. The Langhorne man is licensed to carry the gun, police said. No shots were fired and the suspect fled...”
We can only speculate about the outcome had the intended victim been unarmed and unprepared. In this case, he was armed and hopefully prepared to use his handgun to defend himself if he had to. Fortunately, he didn’t have to. His would-be attacker probably decided that his would-be victim wasn’t going to be an easy target and wouldn’t be worth the trouble.
It was so 120 years ago and it is today
Those administrators who refuse patrol officers necessary equipment place them at unnecessary risk.
By KEITH RIDLER
It was so 120 years ago and it is today.
BOISE, Idaho - The 30-year-old mother of three jumped from her disabled SUV following a chase, holding a gun to her head to keep police back. Officers fired a stun gun but the nonlethal weapon was foiled by her heavy coat.
When she pointed her handgun at the two nearest deputies, officers switched to assault rifles, hitting Sarah Marie Stanfield of Boise eight times with bullets designed to break apart on impact to increase internal damage. She died last fall of multiple gunshot wounds.
Some jurisdictions across the U.S. have been arming rank-and-file officers with high-powered assault rifles for a decade or more. But law enforcement officials say that trend has accelerated in the last year because of greater numbers of shootouts, standoffs in which police were outgunned, rising officer deaths and mass shootings of civilians by heavily armed gunmen.
"If you get into a fire fight, you want to be the winner," said Scott Knight, police chief of Chaska, Minn., and chairman of the firearms committee for the International Association of Chiefs of Police. "Our departments are moving to those weapons out of necessity across the country."
Chaska, 25 miles southwest of Minneapolis, is a town of only about 24,000, but earlier this month Knight ordered the department's first 10 assault rifles, each with two 30-round magazines.
By KEITH RIDLER
It was so 120 years ago and it is today.
BOISE, Idaho - The 30-year-old mother of three jumped from her disabled SUV following a chase, holding a gun to her head to keep police back. Officers fired a stun gun but the nonlethal weapon was foiled by her heavy coat.
When she pointed her handgun at the two nearest deputies, officers switched to assault rifles, hitting Sarah Marie Stanfield of Boise eight times with bullets designed to break apart on impact to increase internal damage. She died last fall of multiple gunshot wounds.
Some jurisdictions across the U.S. have been arming rank-and-file officers with high-powered assault rifles for a decade or more. But law enforcement officials say that trend has accelerated in the last year because of greater numbers of shootouts, standoffs in which police were outgunned, rising officer deaths and mass shootings of civilians by heavily armed gunmen.
"If you get into a fire fight, you want to be the winner," said Scott Knight, police chief of Chaska, Minn., and chairman of the firearms committee for the International Association of Chiefs of Police. "Our departments are moving to those weapons out of necessity across the country."
Chaska, 25 miles southwest of Minneapolis, is a town of only about 24,000, but earlier this month Knight ordered the department's first 10 assault rifles, each with two 30-round magazines.
Reminder
Sergeant Don Mueller
Are you staying aware of the routes you drive to and from work? We all fall into the trap of driving the same routes and even walking/jogging the same paths in or around our homes. We must stay vigilant to vary our routines and not display patterns which could easily be used for ambush.
Do you pay close attention to people and vehicles around you when you enter and leave your home? And do you watch your rear view mirror when leaving work? Make sure you are never followed and you pay attention. We detain and arrest people everyday who probably hold a great deal of resentment towards us. You don’t ever want to lead suspects to your family and children!
Do you advertise that you are a cop to your neighbors? We all remember when they drilled this into us years ago in the academy, but have you become lax? We all know that our closest friends and neighbors will obviously know what we do, but we do not need to carelessly display this to everyone! Do you have bumper stickers or license plate frames that give away the fact that you are a cop? Get rid of them! Can you be seen carrying, or even wearing, your uniform as you come and go from your home?
Do you ALWAYS carry your off-duty weapon on your person? Deputy Davis did not have his off-duty weapon on him. He left it in his vehicle’s glove compartment. Many of us make excuses that our off-duty weapon is “too heavy” or “too bulky,” or we live in a “good neighborhood.” Don’t live in denial! Danger can happen any place at any time. You would not go out without your weapon on-duty. Don’t go out without it off-duty!
SWAT Tribute
I retired from the Los Angeles Police Department after more than 28 years to become the Chief of Police in South Pasadena, where I've served for six years. Along with the rest of the law enforcement community, I grieve for the loss of LAPD SWAT Officer Randy Simmons.
Like most LAPD officers, I never worked SWAT. No doubt I didn't have what it takes - very few do. But I had the opportunity on many occasions to observe them in action. In the ranks of the LAPD, SWAT is iconic. Under routine circumstances, SWAT cops can be aloof. The best in any profession usually are. They work out on duty when others can't. They train continuously when others can't. This can breed envy. And yet all LAPD officers admire SWAT officers for being the best. They're the best because of their training and discipline. And, when you need them, there's no one in the world who's better at what they do.
I've been the incident commander at barricaded suspect scenes when we needed them. The scene is chaotic. Highly motivated, but not highly trained, patrol officers have secured a perimeter with an armed suspect holed up inside a building. You pray that SWAT gets there and takes over before your officers have to engage the suspect. SWAT arrives and they set up. They are the professionals you need - and when the last patrol officer on the inner perimeter is relieved by a SWAT officer, you can sit back and relax a bit. The show is about to begin.
The SWAT officers are methodical, professional, unemotional and totally committed to their mission. The SWAT leader comes to you with a plan that you have to approve as incident commander. It makes sense, contingencies have been addressed - in a word, it's brilliant. You give the green light to implement the plan, and the operation is about to begin. Watching a SWAT team in action is pure artistry in the midst of chaos. And they almost always get their man (or woman) without injury to anyone.
In today's world, where overpaid athletes and rock stars who donate large sums to charity are considered heroes, we are missing the true meaning of what a hero really is. These guys who knowingly risk their lives to save someone intent on killing himself or others are the definition of heroes.
I barely knew Randy Simmons and Jim Veenstra, but they are my heroes. All SWAT officers are heroes. Appreciate them. Thank them. Love them for who they are and what they do.
Dan Watson is chief of police for the South Pasadena Police Department.
In Memory of Luis
