Why Do Cops Shoot?

Before I decided to dedicate myself to writing, my career was in law enforcement. I spent seventeen years in the Canada Border Services Agency, Canada’s border cops. I saw a lot of transition in my time at the border, and the greatest change was the introduction of firearms to our toolkit.

The last ten years of my career were spent wearing a gun. The training and policy we followed was largely cribbed from that of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, so it was based on decades of trial by fire. We benefitted from years of experience and expertise we ourselves had not earned.

I also had the benefit of my father’s 26 years in the Mounted Police, and his “old school” attitudes conditioned mine, long before I’d ever holstered a loaded gun and stepped into the public eye.

Like my father before me, I never shot anyone, I’m glad to say. I drew my weapon on seven occasions that I recall, the first being the arrest of a mentally disturbed man with a knife; the last being the arrest of a suspect who’d murdered a man in a wild chase through the streets of Seattle. Each time I drew my gun, I was prepared to use it. The fact that I never had to, I consider a blessing.

My father came much closer to using his gun than I ever did. Early in his career, he’d confronted a sniper who’d just murdered a couple in their own backyard. He’d spotted the man, poking his rifle out a second-storey window, and took aim. My dad had made the mental decision to shoot, and was pressing on the trigger when the gunman’s mother ran out, screaming.

Instead of taking a life, he made an arrest. Because, whenever possible, that’s what cops do.

All of my training and experience, and the lessons imparted by the experiences of others, have given me a perspective on the always burning question of why cops shoot members of the public. As you might suspect, my opinions are not in line with the current conventional wisdom on the subject.

This was brought home to me in a resounding manner five years ago, when the case of an encounter between a small-town policeman and a young African-American male in Ferguson, Missouri, brought the issue to a boil. Which is more or less where it has stayed, ever since.

I recall discussing the case on Facebook with a then-friend of mine, a character actor in Hollywood. Though he has played policemen in his time, like most actors, he has no experience of the reality of policing. I called him out on what I felt were some very incendiary statements he had made, calling the then-Officer Darren Wilson a murderer for shooting Michael Brown. I pointed out that there had not been a proper investigation yet, and that it was entirely possible that the “eyewitnesses” who created the “hands up, don’t shoot” storyline were either intentionally lying or had been intimidated into doing so.

My friend, like so many people of a liberal bent, had already made up his mind. He told me Darren Wilson was a racist murderer, and that was that. Of course, he made allowance for the fact that I was “one of the good ones,” and of course, I’d never do what Officer Wilson did.

I think I shocked him when I stated quite flatly that, if Wilson’s account was in fact true, that the very-much-larger Michael Brown was trying to disarm him at the time he fired the fatal shot, then that’s exactly what I would have done. So, don’t call me “one of the good ones,” pal. Your perception of what makes a cop “good” is all wrong.

Five years, and five investigations later, and Darren Wilson’s version of events has been upheld. Forensics supported his testimony that he was being violently disarmed at the time he killed Brown. And it supported my gut feeling that I’d have made the same call. After all, that was my training. I’m just lucky I never had to use it.

Because, five years on, Darren Wilson lives in hiding. “Hands up, don’t shoot” is still the conventional wisdom narrative of Ferguson. This proves three things to me. One, in the 21st Century, we prefer the feelings of “truthiness” to actual facts. Two, we are craven cowards on the subject of race. And three, as a society, we still have no damned idea why cops shoot, and why they don’t.

At first glance, my last conclusion seems odd. A visitor from another world, when considering our entertainment choices, might conclude we are all experts on policing. We do spend an awful lot of time watching Hollywood cops, portrayed by actors like my former friend, chase down the bad guys.

But, of course, like so much of what Hollywood produces, the reality of the product is of little apparent concern. Produced by people of similar mindset to my former friend, the Hollywood version of policing celebrates the “good ones” who would never, ever shoot a Michael Brown, and never asks the question I’m trying to address here.

Why do cops shoot, anyway? And are they doing it too much?

First, some mind-numbing statistics. People on the other side of this debate love to cherry-pick their statistics, and ignore some others. But it’s not possible to have an honest discussion of the issue without looking at the whole picture.

Police are in the business of crime control. Sometimes, that crime is very violent, and involves weapons. Some of the people committing those crimes either can’t, because of mental issues or intoxication, or won’t go into custody peacefully. Sometimes there is time to step back and talk, or deploy “less-lethal” methods. Sometimes there isn’t.

Sometimes, it’s one or two cops with seconds to make the decision we’re talking about here.

Here’s some US statistics, since the United States is at the heart of the debate over deadly force, particularly its racial aspects. The United States has approximately 900,000 law enforcement personnel in a nation of 325 million people. As of 2018, 992 people in the United States were shot fatally shot by police, according to the Washington Post’s database on the subject. This means that just over one in a thousand officers in the US kill a person annually, probably less if you account for multiple-officer shootings.

Officers are clearly not out for blood here. The National Institute of Justice reports that fewer than 20% of arrests result in any use of force whatsoever, including what is commonly called “empty-hand techniques.”

When a weapon was drawn or used, only 2.1% of the time, it was usually a “less-lethal” device such as pepper spray. Only in 0.2 percent of arrests was a firearm even drawn.

This conforms to my experience, as most of my use of force was “hands-on,” usually involving a take-down technique. But not all environments are the same. I’d suspect that, working the Canada-US border, where a large number of firearms were regularly seized, guns were more on my mind that perhaps they would have been for a cop in a sleepy small town, hundreds of miles from the border. But still, most of my arrests, and there were hundreds, involved little or no force at all.

That’s because, as the NIJ acknowledges, officers are trained to use minimal amounts of force, wherever possible, to get the job done.

The basic rule, explained in “old school” terminology, is “Ask, Tell, Make:”

First, ASK the subject politely but firmly to comply.

Second, TELL the person strongly to comply.

Third, MAKE the person comply forcefully.

In my experience, roughly speaking, ASK worked about 90% of the time, as opposed to the 80% suggested by NIJ. Why? Again, not all environments are the same. I spent most of my career working in a large border crossing. It was an intimidating area for anyone contemplating fighting or fleeing. Cameras were everywhere. Routes of escape were limited. Backup was plentiful. That’s not always the case in street policing.

So, we can see, if the statistics are to be believed, and there’s certainly no hiding bodies in this day and age, cops are not on a killing spree. But what about race? Let’s address the elephant in the room. The NIJ study found no correlation between officer background and use of force. Period. White cops are not more likely to kill than black cops.

But what about offender characteristics?

From the NIJ study, it’s clear that being under the influence of alcohol or drugs was a far more significant factor, resulting in more assaults on officers, and more potential for injury to both sides. This also jibes with my personal experience. Intoxicated people, particularly those on alcohol or stimulant drugs such as cocaine or methamphetamine, posed the biggest control problems, and triggered many of my worst encounters.

But race does remain an issue. Some studies suggest a black man is 2.5 times more likely to be killed by police than a white man, as cited in Scientific American. But considering race, in my opinion, is out of context unless one also considers subject behaviour at the time they were shot. And this is the part a lot of people don’t want to hear.

A study by the Dolan Consulting Group lays it out starkly: They compared how people were armed (or not) at the time they were killed by police, compared to the weapons (or not) used by convicted cop killers. In my mind, this is the single greatest argument that most police killings are, in fact, justified:

• 85% of people killed by police had a gun or a knife.
• 83% of cop killers did.
• 6% of people killed by police were using a vehicle as a weapon.
• 6% of cop killers were.
• 9% of people killed by police were unarmed.
• 11% of cop killers were.

Again, I have personal experience on this score. Towards the end of my career, I had a scary encounter with a truly massive man. He was white, drunk, and verbally aggressive. He stood 6’8 tall, and must have weighed almost 400 pounds. When he responded to my request that he empty his pockets, his suggestion was that I prepare to get my ass kicked.

Yes, I had a little, 21-inch, expandable baton that was going to be my first choice. I did not have a Taser. I was not confident the baton would do the trick. Had my verbal techniques not worked, I knew for sure the ensuing rumble would result in broken bones, probably for both of us. Could I win without shooting? I honestly wasn’t sure. “Unarmed man shot by police” sounds unjust. But that’s not actually what the law says. The law says force needs to be “reasonable.” And for the only time in my career, I considered that shooting an “unarmed” man might very well be “reasonable,” if I wanted to see my kids again.

The Dolan study makes another damning, potentially incendiary, but nonetheless supported comparison between the ethnicity of cop killers, and the ethnicity of those killed by police. This is, I remind you, based on data gathered by the very liberal Washington Post:

• 26% of people killed by police were African-American.
• 33% of cop killers were.
• 17% of people killed by police were Hispanic.
• 19% of cop killers were.
• 53% of people killed by police were white.
• 42% of cop killers were.
• 4% of people killed by police were “other.”
• 6% of cop killers were.

It would almost seem as if white people are the ones being killed out of proportion to the threat they pose to officers, wouldn’t it?

I don’t know. As Mark Twain said, there are lies, damned lies, and statistics. There are racist cops out there, for sure. But how much impact do those biases have on the decision to shoot? I bet, very little. They may influence more deliberate cruelty, such as the shameful sodomy attack on a Haitian immigrant by NYPD officers a few years back, but split-second decision making behind the trigger?

Even the most clearly wrong shootings involving race seem, on closer examination, to be simply the result of shitty decision-making.

Take the unfortunate case of Walter Scott and Michael Slager. Slager, a white cop, stopped Scott, a black man, for child-support warrants. The two tussled, at which time Slager drew his Taser. Then he lost it. Scott ran, and Slager shot him in the back. It was all on tape.

To me, Slager’s reaction after he shoots Scott tells the whole story. He looks down, sees the Taser lying at his feet. He picks it up, takes it towards where Scott is lying, and drops it.

I fucked up. I thought you had the Taser. “Fleeing felon with deadly weapon.” So, I shot you. This does not look good. Better cover my tracks.

Of course, the camera caught that too, and ensured that two lives were destroyed that day instead of one. But here’s the thing: He fucked up, and tried to cover it. Felonious, to be sure. But where’s the race issue? He had probable cause to stop Scott. Probable cause to arrest.

Just not cause to shoot. He lost situational awareness, fucked up, and tried to cover his tracks, thereby completely damning himself in the process.

Bearing all this in mind, here’s what I know about police shootings:

1. Most cops pray they’ll never have to shoot. And most cops never do. Sometimes we take some pretty big chances to avoid it.
2. The law gives cops wide latitude on use of force. Most cops draw their personal boundaries more strictly. For every ten deadly weapon assaults on police, there’s only one shooting.
3. When there’s time to talk, we talk. When there’s time to go for anything other than the gun, we do.
4. Truth be told, if we do have to shoot someone, we hope it’s someone who looks like us. Racial politics make being a racist killer a very dicey business.
5. We’re not out to kill mentally ill people. But society dumps the responsibility for dealing with the issue onto us. Often without additional training or resources. And their knives and bullets are no less lethal than ours.
6. Guns kill. Knives kill. Cars, and wrenches, and baseball bats kill. Sometimes, bare hands do, too. If we think any of the above are about to kill us, we might shoot.
7. Think police shootings are an epidemic? Consider this: Doctors kill more people in the US every year. Do you know how much more? 990 police shootings. 251,454 medical errors. Yet they still get to investigate themselves.
8. Sometimes, cops die because we hesitate. Want to make us hesitate more? Own the result.
9. Some cops are bad. You know who wants to get rid of them more than anyone else? The people who have to work with them.
10. Remember all those bad cops body cams were supposed to catch? They have caught a few. But guess what’s also happened? More complaints being found invalid, when the cameras showed us doing the right thing. Be careful what you believe.

That’s what I know. Decide for yourself. But ask yourself this question: Would I be willing to go to a job where my nickname is “pig”, and my choice of punishment for screwing up is prison or death? Sure, the money’s good. But it’s not that good.