Firearms and use of force training should focus on team skills such as communication, movement, and weapon handling in environments beyond the “flat range.”  This is also true for patrol officers.

84% of the OIS’s had more than one officer on scene when shots were fired. Even when SWAT OIS’s were removed from the data, 80% of patrol OIS’s had more than one officer on scene.  

Live-fire training should spend adequate time with officers starting with their handgun in hand and quickly achieving hits on target (less than 2 seconds).

In 83% of the OIS’s where an officer used their handgun, the officer already had their weapon unholstered prior to the shooting. The officers did not have to draw and immediately shoot.

During almost all OIS’s, officers are multi-tasking just prior to shooting. Live-fire training should include officer’s running and/or giving verbal commands prior to firing shoots. Officers can safely run on the range during live-fire with their weapons in hand. This a common real-world situation.

Verbal commands (48%) and running (35%) were the most common pre-shooting activities. Patrol officer ran 44% of the time just prior to firing rounds.