# P1 Exclusive: Where did all the bullets go?



## kwflatbed (Dec 29, 2004)

*P1 Exclusive: Where did all the bullets go? *


*Law Enforcement Firearms*
with Richard Fairburn

Not long ago, the _New York Times_ carried an article that revealed one of law enforcement's deepest, darkest secrets. Though most agencies are loathe to admit it (and some do not even track it), the vast majority of the bullets police officers fire in the line of duty miss their intended target.
I was not surprised to find striking similarity in the results reported by Los Angeles on the left coast and New York City on the right. I found almost identical numbers ten years ago when analyzing the shooting results of a large mid-western agency. And to prove that the situation is apparently little changed from a hundred years ago, consider this Theodore Roosevelt quote from when he was the New York City Police Commissioner: "It is wonderful, in the event of a street fight, how few bullets seem to hit the men they are aimed at."
How bad is it? Well, both NYPD and LAPD give hit-rates that hover around 30 percent. In the article, New York claimed a 34 percent hit rate, while LA listed a 31 percent hit rate last year. But, upon a closer read, you will find that even these low numbers misstate the real facts. You see, these 30 percent hit rates include shots fired at dogs, cars, and even police suicides, which tragically run about 100 percent hits. During 1999 in New York, only 13 percent of the bullets fired during police gunfights struck home. During 2006, NYPD's gunfight hit rate was a much better 30 percent, but we don't have enough information to know if this was a maintainable improvement or just a statistical variation.
So, even when we take the best "spin" on the best numbers, about 70 percent of the bullets police officers fire strike something they didn't want to shoot. Luckily, there is an awful lot of stuff in our jurisdictions that can catch errant bullets with minimal bad consequences. While NYPD no longer tabulates information on things unintentionally shot, in 1996 five innocent bystanders were wounded there by police gunfire.
Realistically, we cannot expect street officers armed with handguns to approach the sniper's goal of "one shot, one kill." But, when you consider that the average distance of a police gunfight is well under 7 yards, often less than 10 feet, we must ask ourselves what the hell is going on?

Full Article: http://www.policeone.com/police-pro...25-P1-Exclusive-Where-did-all-the-bullets-go/


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## Killjoy (Jun 23, 2003)

This is nothing new. There is big difference between shooting targets static on a range and training people to engage in a actual gunfight. Shooting on the range should incorporate shooting & moving, shooting from cover, unprompted reloads, low-light and no-light shooting, moving targets, shoot/don't shoot targets and rigid time standards (2 seconds from holster to 2 rounds on target). Realistic distances should also be used to simulate the actual distances that gunfights occur, not some arbitrary number. Over half of police shootings (53%) occur within touching distance of opponents; so how much training do you do at 1-3 yards? Stress should be induced by the targets, not the instructors. While live-fire shooting is important, force-on-force, simunition/airsoft and FATS training are also highly important to round out deadly force instruction.

Much of this comes down to how much is management willing to invest in training. Training only produces well-trained officers. Money spent on tangible items give chiefs sexy new cars, helicopters or emergency response vans. Unfortunately training is usually the first casualty of reduced budgets.


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