New findings from FBI about cop attackers &
their weapons
New findings on how offenders train with, carry and deploy the weapons they use
to attack police officers have emerged in a just-published, 5-year study by the
FBI.
Among other things, the data reveal that most would-be cop killers:
--show
signs of being armed that officers miss;
--have more experience using deadly force in "street combat" than their intended
victims;
--practice with firearms more often and shoot more accurately;
--have no hesitation whatsoever about pulling the trigger. "If you hesitate,"
one told the study's researchers, "you're dead. You have the instinct or you
don't. If you don't, you're in trouble on the street.."
These and other weapons-related findings comprise one chapter in a 180-page
research summary called "Violent Encounters: A Study of Felonious Assaults on
Our Nation's Law Enforcement Officers." The study is the third in a series of
long investigations into fatal and nonfatal attacks on POs by the FBI team of
Dr. Anthony Pinizzotto, clinical forensic psychologist, and Ed Davis, criminal
investigative instructor, both with the Bureau's Behavioral Science Unit, and
Charles Miller III, coordinator of the LEOs Killed and Assaulted program.
"Violent Encounters" also reports in detail on the personal characteristics of
attacked officers and their assaulters, the role of perception in
life-threatening confrontations, the myths of memory that can hamper OIS
investigations, the suicide-by-cop phenomenon, current training issues, and
other matters relevant to officer survival. (Force Science News and our
strategic partner PoliceOne.com will be reporting on more findings from this
landmark study in future transmissions.)
Commenting on the broad-based study, Dr. Bill Lewinski, executive director of
the Force Science Research Center at Minnesota State University-Mankato, called
it "very challenging and insightful--important work that only a handful of
gifted and experienced researchers could accomplish."
From a pool of more than 800 incidents, the researchers selected 40, involving
43 offenders (13 of them admitted gangbangers-drug traffickers) and 50 officers,
for in-depth exploration. They visited crime scenes and extensively interviewed
surviving officers and attackers alike, most of the latter in prison.
Here are highlights of what they learned about weapon selection, familiarity,
transport and use by criminals attempting to murder cops, a small portion of the
overall research:
Weapon Choice
Predominately handguns were used in the assaults on officers and
all but one were obtained illegally, usually in street
transactions or in thefts. In contrast to media myth, none of the firearms in
the study was obtained from gun shows. What was available "was the overriding
factor in weapon choice," the report says.
Only 1 offender hand-picked a particular gun "because he felt
it would do the most damage to a human being."
Researcher Davis , in a presentation and discussion for the International Assn.
of Chiefs of Police, noted that none of the attackers interviewed was "hindered
by any law--federal, state or local--that has ever been established to prevent
gun ownership. They just laughed at gun laws."
Familiarity
Several of the offenders began regularly to carry weapons when they were 9 to 12
years old, although the average age was 17 when they first started packing "most
of the time." Gang members especially started young. Nearly 40% of the
offenders had some type of formal firearms training, primarily from the
military. More than 80% "regularly practiced
with handguns, averaging 23 practice sessions a year," the
study reports, usually in informal settings like trash dumps, rural woods, back
yards and "street corners in known drug-trafficking areas."
One spoke of being motivated to improve his gun skills by his belief that
officers "go to the range two, three times a week [and] practice arms so they
can hit anything."
In reality, victim officers in the study averaged just 14 hours of sidearm
training and 2.5 qualifications per year. Only 6 of the 50 officers reported
practicing regularly with handguns apart from what their department required,
and that was mostly in competitive shooting. Overall, the offenders practiced
more often than the officers they assaulted, and this "may have helped increase
[their] marksmanship skills," the study says.
The offender quoted above about his practice motivation, for example, fired 12
rounds at an officer, striking him 3 times. The officer fired 7 rounds, all
misses.
More than 40% of the offenders had been involved in actual shooting
confrontations before they feloniously assaulted an officer. Ten of these
"street combat veterans," all from "inner-city, drug-trafficking environments,"
had taken part in 5 or more "criminal firefight experiences" in their lifetime.
One reported that he was 14 when he was first shot on the street, "about 18
before a cop shot me." Another said getting shot was a pivotal experience
"because I made up my mind no one was gonna shoot me again."
Again in contrast, only 8 of the 50 LEO victims had participated in a prior
shooting; 1 had been involved in 2 previously, another in 3. Seven of the 8 had
killed offenders.
Concealment
The offenders said they most often hid guns on their person in the front
waistband, with the groin area and the small of the back nearly tied for second
place. Some occasionally gave their weapons to another person to carry, "most
often a female companion." None regularly used a holster, and about 40% at least
sometimes carried a backup weapon.
In motor vehicles, they most often kept their firearm readily available on their
person, or, less often, under the seat. In residences, most stashed their weapon
under a pillow, on a nightstand, under the mattress--somewhere within immediate
reach while in bed.
Almost all carried when on the move and strong majorities did so when
socializing, committing crimes or being at home. About one-third brought weapons
with them to work. Interestingly, the offenders in this study more commonly
admitted having guns under all these circumstances than did offenders
interviewed in the researchers' earlier 2 surveys, conducted in the 1980s and
'90s.
According to Davis , "Male offenders said time and time again that female
officers tend to search them more thoroughly than male officers. In prison, most
of the offenders were more afraid to carry contraband or weapons when a female
CO was on duty."
On the street, however, both male and female officers too often regard female
subjects "as less of a threat, assuming that they not going to have a gun,"
Davis said. In truth, the researchers concluded that more female offenders are
armed today than 20 years ago--"not just female gang associates, but female
offenders generally."
Shooting
Style
Twenty-six of the offenders [about 60%], including all of the street combat
veterans, "claimed to be instinctive shooters, pointing and firing the weapon
without consciously aligning the sights," the study says.
"They practice getting the gun out and using it," Davis explained. "They shoot
for effect." Or as one of the offenders put it: "[W]e're not working with no
marksmanship..We just putting it in your direction, you know..It don't matter.as
long as it's gonna hit you.if it's up at your head or your chest, down at your
legs, whatever..Once I squeeze and you fall, then.if I want to execute you, then
I could go from there."
Hit Rate
More often than the officers they attacked, offenders delivered at least some
rounds on target in their encounters. Nearly 70% of assailants were successful
in that regard with handguns, compared to about 40% of the victim officers, the
study found. (Efforts of offenders and officers to get on target were considered
successful if any rounds struck, regardless of the number fired.)
Davis speculated that the offenders might have had an advantage because in all
but 3 cases they fired first, usually catching the officer by surprise. Indeed,
the report points out, "10 of the total victim officers had been wounded [and
thus impaired] before they returned gunfire at their attackers."
Missed
Cues
Officers would less likely be caught off guard by attackers if they were more
observant of indicators of concealed weapons, the study concludes. These
particularly include manners of dress, ways of moving and unconscious gestures
often related to carrying.
"Officers should look for unnatural protrusions or bulges in the waist, back and
crotch areas," the study says, and watch for "shirts that appear rippled or wavy
on one side of the body while the fabric on the other side appears smooth." In
warm weather, multilayered clothing inappropriate to the temperature may be a
giveaway. On cold or rainy days, a subject's jacket hood may not be covering his
head because it is being used to conceal a handgun.
Because they eschew holsters, offenders reported frequently touching a concealed
gun with hands or arms "to assure themselves that it is still hidden, secure and
accessible" and hasn't shifted. Such gestures are especially noticeable
"whenever individuals change body positions, such as standing, sitting or
exiting a vehicle." If they run, they may need to keep a constant grip on a
hidden gun to control it.
Just as cops generally blade their body to make their sidearm less accessible,
armed criminals "do the same in encounters with LEOs to ensure concealment and
easy access."
An irony, Davis noted, is that officers who are assigned to look for concealed
weapons, while working off-duty security at night clubs for instance, are often
highly proficient at detecting them. "But then when they go back to the street
without that specific assignment, they seem to 'turn off' that skill," and thus
are startled--sometimes fatally--when a suspect suddenly produces a weapon and
attacks.
Mind-set
Thirty-six of the 50 officers in the study had "experienced hazardous situations
where they had the legal authority" to use deadly force "but chose not to
shoot." They averaged 4 such prior incidents before the encounters that the
researchers investigated. "It appeared clear that none of these officers were
willing to use deadly force against an offender if other options were
available," the researchers concluded.
The offenders were of a different mind-set entirely. In fact, Davis said the
study team "did not realize how cold blooded the younger generation of offender
is. They have been exposed to killing after killing, they fully expect to get
killed and they don't hesitate to shoot anybody, including a police officer.
They can go from riding down the street saying what a beautiful day it is to
killing in the next instant."
"Offenders typically displayed no moral or ethical restraints in using
firearms," the report states. "In fact, the street combat veterans survived by
developing a shoot-first mentality.
"Officers never can assume that a criminal is unarmed until they have thoroughly
searched the person and the surroundings themselves." Nor, in the interest of
personal safety, can officers "let their guards down in any type of law
enforcement situation."
