It would be unwise for departments to enact a blanket
prohibition on shooting from moving vehicles, or to micromanage these
activities through policy
Tactical Analysis
with Mike Wood
A dramatic video from an
officer-involved shooting this week has garnered a lot of attention on
PoliceOne and elsewhere in the law enforcement community.
In the video, an officer pursuing
a pair of murder suspects is fired upon by the criminals from their fleeing
SUV. The officer returns fire through his own windshield while driving his
police car in pursuit.
Thankfully, the officer was not
injured in the shooting and the incident was successfully resolved. One suspect
was killed by police at the termination of the pursuit when he tried to run
over the officers with the SUV, and the other suspect was arrested later, after
fleeing the scene.
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There may indeed be tactical
circumstances where the reward makes it appropriate for an officer to shoot
through his own windshield while driving after a dangerous suspect, but there
are many risks associated with this kind of action. (Photo/LVMPD)
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THE WORK’S NOT OVER YET
I am grateful that the officers
involved in this incident were not injured and that the criminals were
apprehended. I also join the ranks of
PoliceOne readers and other law enforcement professionals – including the
assistant sheriff of this agency – who have praised the officers for their
aggressive pursuit of these dangerous criminals, and their dedication to
protecting the community from them.
However, now that the incident is
over, it is appropriate to consider the tactics displayed in the video, and the
implications for future incidents.
Although we seem to be experiencing a spike in similar activity lately,
it’s uncommon for officers to fire from a moving vehicle during a pursuit, more
uncommon for officers to fire while simultaneously acting as the driver, and
even more uncommon yet for officers to fire through their own windshield at
suspects, so it makes sense to learn what we can from this rare incident. What
do we want law enforcement officers to take away from this event, particularly
with respect to shooting from a moving vehicle?
CONSIDER THE RISKS
First, we must emphasize that a
police officer is required to constantly balance the risks of his actions
against the potential reward. There may indeed be tactical circumstances where
the reward makes it appropriate for an officer to shoot through his own
windshield while driving after a dangerous suspect, but there are many risks
associated with this kind of action.
Police officers must be cognizant of these risks at all times, and
include them as part of their decision-making process. Officers weigh risks and
make decisions based on the circumstances (as they are known to them), the law,
their training, their experience, their department policies, ethical
considerations and their personal knowledge when they’re choosing appropriate
tactics to employ.
What are some of the risks an
officer should consider in this scenario?
1. Losing control of the police vehicle.
If an officer is trying to split
his attention between shooting and driving, they cannot fully concentrate on
either. Things happen quickly when driving, and it’s entirely possible an
officer could crash while their attention is diverted away from operating the
police vehicle, or while their hands are full of gun instead of steering wheel.
2. Striking an innocent with the police
vehicle.
Similarly, an officer runs the
risk of striking an uninvolved pedestrian or vehicle when attention is diverted
away from operating the emergency vehicle.
You cannot focus on your front sight and your surrounding environment at
the same time, particularly at pursuit speeds.
3. Injury potential from stray rounds.
Hitting a moving target when
you’re stationary is difficult. Hitting
a moving target when you’re also moving is even more difficult. Most of you serve in agencies where you’re lucky
if any of your training regularly involves shooting while your feet are moving,
and it’s highly unlikely that any of you serve in agencies that teach you how
to shoot from a moving vehicle, so some of you may not fully appreciate how
difficult it is to achieve a good, fight-stopping hit in this scenario. The
complexity of making a good hit on the suspect at pursuit speeds cannot be
overestimated, and the odds of missing your target are exceptionally high in a
scenario where you’re shooting at a moving and maneuvering vehicle from another
moving and maneuvering vehicle, especially if you’re simultaneously trying to
drive. Added to this, your ability to remain aware of your background is
severely hampered when driving at pursuit speeds, because the environment is
changing so rapidly. These factors combine
to create a nightmare scenario, where the officer is not only likely to miss
the target, but to also be unaware of innocents in the background who may be
injured by rounds that miss the target.
4. Injury potential from ricochets.
Vehicles are robust and bullets
are not. While a bullet may indeed penetrate a vehicle if the conditions are
right (angles, impact location), they may also ricochet off the surface or
break up on the surface and spray dangerous fragments at unpredictable angles
which can injure innocents.
5. Suspect losing control of vehicle.
If you’re successful in targeting
the criminal occupants of the vehicle, you may cause them to lose control of
the vehicle. Once this happens, it’s anybody’s guess where it will wind up and
what it will hit. If the suspect loses control of the vehicle on a busy road or
in a populated area, many innocents could be injured in the resulting crash.
CONSIDER THE TACTICAL
IMPLICATIONS
Besides the risks, an officer
must also consider the ways that the tactical situation could play out if they
choose to shoot at a moving suspect vehicle. It’s possible that shooting at the
suspect vehicle may be ineffective, may enhance the danger to the officer, or
may provoke a more dangerous reaction from the suspect that puts the public at
greater risk. Consider tactical issues such as the following:
1. Only good hits count.
The proper target is the suspect.
Putting holes in the vehicle accomplishes very little, unless you fire the
“golden BB” that disables it – which is highly unlikely with a handgun,
shotgun, or 5.56x45mm patrol rifle. National hit averages in police gunfights
have hovered in the teens since we started keeping track, and that’s with feet
planted on terra firma. Vehicle-to-vehicle engagements offer an even lower
promise of good hits, particularly if you’re shooting through your own
windshield. Until your concentrated fire puts a big enough hole in the
windshield to shoot through without interruption, the laminated safety glass
will have a dramatic effect on the trajectory of the rounds you fire, making it
extremely difficult to put accurate rounds on targets beyond the end of your
car’s hood.
2. Depleting your ammo supply.
Your chances of making good hits
are low, but your chances of wasting your ammunition are exceptionally high
with each shot fired. It would do you little good to reach the end of a pursuit
with a weapon that’s empty or close to it, particularly if the occupants came
out fighting. If a pursuit terminates in a gunfight, you’ll wish you had all
those rounds back in your gun or pouch, instead of a pile of spent brass on the
floorboard.
3. Negligent discharge.
Your risk of a negligent
discharge while shooting and driving is dramatically increased. It’s awkward to maneuver a weapon around the
obstacles in the cabin of a police car (dashboard, steering wheel, radio rack,
computer, long gun rack, seatbelt) and in the stress of the event, you’re even
more likely to abandon good trigger finger discipline. Shooting or fragging
yourself (or a partner) with a negligent discharge won’t help you win the
fight.
4. Cover degradation.
If you put holes in your
windshield with outgoing fire, that makes it easier for incoming fire to get to
you. It also simplifies the marksmanship problem for the enemy, because his
rounds are more likely to travel straight, without deflection.
5. Visibility.
Shooting through your own
windshield will make it even more difficult for you to see out of it, which
isn’t a good thing in the middle of a pursuit. The restricted visibility may
make it more difficult to drive safely, and may also make it more difficult to
observe the suspects and their actions.
6. Hearing loss.
Shooting your firearm inside of a
vehicle will probably damage your ears, causing both short- and long-term
hearing loss. Your hearing loss may be so acute that you’ll have difficulty
hearing the radio as the pursuit continues, or communicating with the suspects
and other officers at the end of the chase, robbing you of important sensory inputs.
7. Glass injuries.
Shooting through your laminated
windshield will create glass dust that can get in your eyes and lungs, causing
injuries that may impair vision, disable you, or create longer-term health
problems.
8. Weapon retention.
If you happen to crash the
vehicle while your weapon is in your hand, you have a good chance of losing it
in the collision. In the infamous FBI-Miami shootout, two agents lost their
weapons in crashes before the bullets started flying. One agent was forced to fight
with a substandard backup against a rifle, and the other had to flee because he
was unarmed. Your weapon is secure in its holster, and will be there for you
even if the pursuit ends abruptly in a collision.
MITIGATE THE RISKS
None of this means that shooting
from a moving police vehicle is automatically a bad idea. Instead, it simply
means you have to fully consider the possibilities, and weigh the risks versus
the rewards, before you pull the trigger.
Additionally, you need to
consider the ways that you can mitigate the risks, and enhance the chances for
your success.
For example, if the tactical
situation requires officers to shoot at a moving vehicle, they should consider
controls and options such as the following:
Withholding fire in densely populated
areas or on busy roads;
Using other units to block
traffic and create a safe environment/background for engagement;
Coordinating with other units to
disable suspect vehicles (deploying spike strips comes to mind while using good
tactics and not sacrificing officer safety) or slow/channel them with vehicle
blockades to make them easier to engage with gunfire;
Tracking suspects with available
air assets that can remain out of the practical range of the suspect’s weapons;
Using two-man cars to engage the
suspect so that one officer can concentrate on shooting and one officer can
concentrate on driving;
Equipping long guns with
suppressors to mitigate hearing damage;
Equipping handguns with laser
sights to enhance hit probability from awkward shooting positions.
Wear ballistic-rated eye
protection on duty, even if you don't require vision correction.
This is just a start. I’m sure
the professionals in our PoliceOne audience could come up with many more ways
to control the outcome and improve the odds for success.
IN CLOSING
It’s important to note that every
tactical situation is unique, and the dynamic nature of police work defies
attempts by policy wonks and administrators to write a set of rules that will
successfully address every problem that an officer may encounter on duty. It’s
a fool’s game to chase the creation of a detailed policy that seeks to direct
every aspect of an officer’s actions in the field.
It would be unwise for
departments to enact a blanket prohibition on shooting from moving vehicles, or
to micromanage these activities through policy. Instead, they should work on
improving an officer’s ability to weigh the risks versus the rewards, consider
the tactical implications of their actions, and improve their ability to use
the resources at their disposal to mitigate and control risk.
The key to successful police
operations is good decision-making, not more policies. That’s the most
important lesson we can take from this latest officer-involved shooting.
Be safe out there.
About the author
Lieutenant Colonel (ret.) Mike
Wood is the son of a 30-year California Highway Patrolman and the author of
Newhall Shooting: A Tactical Analysis, the highly-acclaimed study of the 1970
California Highway Patrol gunfight in Newhall, California. The book is
available in paper and electronic formats through Amazon.com,
BarnesandNoble.com, Apple ITunes and gundigeststore.com. Please visit the
official website for this book at www.newhallshooting.com for more information.
Mike is an Honor Graduate of the United
States Air Force Academy, a graduate of the U.S. Army Airborne School, and a
retired U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel with over 26 years of service. Mike
retired as a Command Pilot, with more than 4,500 hours in aircraft ranging from
fighters to tankers, and flew more than 550 combat hours over Afghanistan and
Iraq. He’s the recipient of the Meritorious Service Medal (3), Air Medal (5),
and Aerial Achievement Medal (3), and was recognized as the U.S. Air Force Air
Mobility Command Flying Instructor of the Year in 2000.
Mike is a lifelong shooter, a
student of self-defense, an active firearms instructor with certifications from
the National Rifle Association (NRA) Law Enforcement Division, and a featured
speaker for law enforcement agencies and associations. He is the Senior Editor
at RevolverGuy.com, and was a contributor at American Cop Magazine and Police
Marksman Magazine. Mike enjoys sharing and applying the lessons from his
training, military and aviation experience with the law enforcement community,
and is grateful for all that he has learned from them in return. Mike is a
member of the PoliceOne Editorial Advisory Board.
url: https://www.policeone.com/Officer-Safety/articles/477982006-Tactical-considerations-for-shooting-while-driving/
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