Can someone give me a short summary of why police have to shoot to kill, I know its to avoid lawsuits if you paralyze/cripple someone and you have to totally eliminate the threat or whatever
i'll try to give a short speech from my own training and the training i've given others: when you are confronted with a situation that poses an imminent or immediate threat of great bodily harm to yourself or to another, you are authorized to protect yourself in the way most effective and expedient. for most police, this is your duty weapon.
you train with it. you carry it sometimes daily. you are required to maintain it and make use of it regularly to practice with and possibly it can and will save your life an the lives of those that depend on you if you do your part.
you must always attempt to de-escalate a situation using whatever means you can. talk to them, use empathy. enjoin emergency services like trained negotiators, crises hotlines, friends, and family. attempt to ensure your surroundings are devoid of significant bystanders. contain and control the situation. make yourself aware of attack and escape routes. know your beat -know your people. if you know that the store clerk can be counted on in a fight, that's a possible ally if you're pulling up to a hold up if you use your training and the tools you have.
you must always shoot when if you don't shoot, a great bodily harm can be the result of your inaction. always shoot to end the threat. if the target dies, then so be it, that's reality. do not draw your weapon until you must be prepared to engage and end the threat immediately. drawing a weapon signifies a level of deadly preparedness that can be provoking to some suspects. consult the field experience of your sergeants.
aiming for center mass reduces the chance of misses because you are dealing with a larger target. small or obscured or unidentifiable or moving targets can miss. missed shots prolong the threat. purposely shooting to wound means you didn't have to shoot at all - your duty weapon is a deadly weapon. treat it as such. practice practice practice, an officer that does not practice is an officer that might miss or may hit something - or someone - unintended especially if the situation is not perfectly contained.
no situation is perfectly identifiable immediately. you get new information all the time. what you must know is that at the time you shoot, is that a good shot? are you ending the threat to yourself and others in the fastest most effective way you can? are you reasonably acting in good faith to shoot and are not guessing or making an unfounded assumption - is there clear and present evidence that it is a good shoot?
even after the dust is settled you must be confident that you have exhausted less than lethal possibilities or that the situation could not be evaluated in the short time needed to contain it or defuse it. you must respond to the situation as presented, not second guessing motives or circumstances beyond your control. in the moment: is it a good shoot?
