“One of the most abrupt, dynamic, and potentially traumatic incidents that can happen in a police officer’s career is the line‐of‐duty discharge of his or her firearm. As much as handcuffs, the uniform, or the shield, the gun is a symbol of the officer’s authority. It is, moreover, a physical embodiment of the officer’s responsibility. The weapon on an officer’s hip is a constant reminder—for officer and citizen alike—of the officer’s role and the trust society has given.”

Attached is the New York Police Departments Annual Firearms Discharge Report. The report serves an important role to frontline, leadership and training personnel: The report is a statistical engine for the development of training, the adoption of new technologies, and even the deployment of Department assets.

New instructional scenarios are implemented from these reports, new hardware—from bullet‐resistant vests to speed loaders to semi‐automatic handguns to controlled‐energy devices—is introduced, and violence‐prone hotspots are identified for inclusion in Operation Impact.

“Tracking how, when, where, and why officers discharge their weapons is an invaluable tool for working towards the Department’s ultimate goal of guaranteeing that, for every discharge, no option exists other than the use of a firearm.”

The NYPD has been compiling information on officer involved shootings from the NYPD, for 40 years. The information contained in the report covers everything from use of force, types of calls, officer characteristics, subject characteristics, number of shots fired, intentional and unintentional discharges and mistaken identity shootings to include police on police shootings and much more. The report also shows how the NYPD investigates and reviews officer involved shootings. As the investigative methodology is written here I would say its a great method departments may wish to adapt.

“Each shooting investigation is thorough and exhaustive, and includes canvasses, area searches, witness interviews, subject interviews, evidence collection, crime‐scene sketches and investigation, hospital visits, and firearms/ballistics analyses. Afterwards, all available investigatory results are collated into a Shooting Incident Report and forwarded to the Chief of Department, ordinarily within 24 hours of the incident.”

Every cop of all ranks should read this report and heed the lessons learned. I feel it  its an outstanding process the NYPD has set up and all cops will benefit from it.

For the full report click here:

Stay Oriented!

Fred