# New study may “radically alter” how police deadly force is viewed



## kwflatbed (Dec 29, 2004)

Part 1 of a 2-part series from Force Science News

The story is a frequent staple of the evening news. An officer shoots and kills a minority subject who turns out to be&#8230;unarmed. Protests explode, and the familiar litany is again asserted: racial bias by the cops underlies many of these inflammatory events. 
Now a new study by a member of the Force Science Research Center's national advisory board confirms what law enforcement officials have argued all along: Such controversial shootings aren't about race. What really prompts an officer to pull the trigger in circumstances that are rapidly evolving and uncertain is the suspect's behavior.

"That's the bottom-line finding," researcher Tom Aveni told Force Science News. "If you confront a police officer in what appears to be a felonious context, it's the way you act that will get you shot-not your race. And that's true regardless of the officer's sex, age, experience, or type of duty location."

In fact, Aveni was able to pinpoint specific body-language that tends to be associated with the decision to shoot.

Moreover, among less important factors that also influence decision-making, even a suspect's clothing and age are likely to be more compelling than his or her ethnicity in determining officers' reactions.

Aveni's conclusions come from his detailed analysis of the reactions of 307 officers who engaged armed and unarmed suspects in simulated confrontations designed to accurately reflect conditions under which officer-involved shootings often occur. Founder of the consulting and training organization The Police Policy Studies Council in addition to serving on FSRC's board, Aveni funded the project largely from his own pocket. He also received some financial aid and substantial logistical assistance from the Michigan Municipal Risk Management Authority, an insurer of law enforcement agencies.

The full report of his findings, titled "A Critical Analysis of Police Shootings Under Ambiguous Circumstances," can be found at: www.theppsc.org 
"This is a very significant, first-of-its-kind investigation," says Dr. Bill Lewinski, executive director of FSRC at Minnesota State University-Mankato. "Tom Aveni has measured critical variables in shooting situations that other researchers have ignored completely. As a result, his findings are far more realistic and meaningful in identifying the factors that truly drive deadly force decision-making." 
Aveni himself believes the study potentially will "radically alter the way police use of deadly force is examined in the future."

Full Article: http://www.policeone.com/writers/columnists/ForceScience/articles/1660208/


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## kwflatbed (Dec 29, 2004)

*What the new study of shootings of unarmed suspects means to you *

Part 2 of a 2-part series

In Part 1 we reported on a ground-breaking new study by researcher Tom Aveni on why and under what circumstances officers shoot suspects who end up not to be armed. Here we offer some of the significant implications of Aveni's findings. Aveni is founder of The Police Policy Studies Council and serves on the national advisory board of the Force Science Research Center at Minnesota State University-Mankato.] As we detailed in Part 1, Tom Aveni's unique study confirms that shootings of unarmed subjects during police confrontations typically do not result from racial bias by the officers involved. Instead, such controversial, "mistake-of-fact" events occur because certain "compelling" behavior by suspects leads officers to believe they are about to be attacked and, under tremendous time pressure, they shoot "preemptively" to defend themselves, before the presence of a deadly weapon can actually be confirmed.

Aveni's findings about the dynamics of these situations have important implications for officers, trainers, shooting investigators, administrators, and police defense attorneys. In an exclusive interview with Force Science News, he explained some of the practical conclusions to be drawn from his data. For a comprehensive report of Aveni's study, "A Critical Analysis of Police Shootings Under Ambiguous Circumstances," go to: www.theppsc.org.

Full Article: http://www.policeone.com/officer-shootings/articles/1665473/


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