@snood,
How often do police officers in the USA who carry a gun practice shooting them?
I do understand with all the recent headlines this question may sound a bit naive as if to insinuate something negative about the police. To be clear, this is not my intention.
I am genuinely interested in hearing about what police officers do to practice their shot.
11 Answers
Tim Dees
Tim Dees, Carrying a gun daily since 1979
Written 25 Feb 2015 · Upvoted by Bill Stein, Former Air Force Security Forces Augmentee, third-generation Law Enforcement
Most law enforcement officers qualify with their sidearms once to six times per year. With some exceptions, they practice far less often.
Few law enforcement agencies have ample budgets. When the budget gets lean, training is often the first item to be cut.
Live firearms training is expensive. If the officer practices with the same ammunition he carries on the street (which he should), 50 rounds is going to cost $35-$50. More commonly, agencies and individual cops buy lower-grade practice ammo for the range, which costs $250-$300 per 1000 rounds, purchased in bulk.
There is always a hazard in not using duty-grade ammo, as the practice ammo may behave differently than the duty-grade stuff. I carry either a 9mm or .40 S&W pistol, and buy bulk ammo for practice. I blow off the ammo I regularly carry once every year or so, and I don't notice much of a difference in recoil or muzzle flash. When I carried a revolver, there was a huge difference. On duty, we carried Remington .357 Magnum 125 grain semi-jacketed hollow point (SJHP) rounds. In the academy and at the range, we shot .38 Special "wadcutter" rounds, which made nice, neat holes in paper targets, and did not have as large a powder charge. The first time I fired a duty round in my revolver, I might have thought I had blown up the gun if I didn't know better. The recoil, sound, and muzzle flash was huge, as compared to the wadcutter ammo. Still, we always used the wadcutters at the range, and blew off our duty ammo only every few years, because it was costly. I bought the same brand and type of ammo out of my own pocket, and never had rounds that were more than a year old in my gun.
Even using practice-grade ammo, firearms training gets to be expensive quickly. Consider a large agency such as LAPD, with about 9,000 sworn officers. If they train with 50 practice rounds (~$275 per 1000 rounds) once per month, that's just short of $1.5 million annually. If they use duty ammo, that cost goes up to about $5.4 million. This does not count the cost of lost personnel time, targets, and staffing the range.
Although there are agencies such as the one where Rick Bruno worked that do practice monthly, most agencies do only qualifications, and do them as seldom as once per year.
At a qualification, there is a prescribed course of fire each officer must complete. For example, here's the course of 25 rounds (shorter than most, but this is what the state requires) I have to complete every year to keep my concealed weapons privileges as a retired officer:
At the three yard line (distance between target and shooter), draw from the holster and fire four rounds: two to the head, two to the body. Time limit: seven seconds. Switch magazines (the state is really big on reloading drills), re-holster.
At the five yard line, draw and fire three rounds (this and all subsequent courses are aimed at center body mass). Time limit: five seconds. Switch magazines.
At the five yard line, from a ready position (gun drawn and pointed downrange), fire three rounds with the support hand only (in my case, my left hand). Time limit: seven seconds. Switch magazines.
At the seven yard line, from a ready position, fire five rounds. Time limit: nine seconds. Switch magazines.
From the ten yard line, from a ready position, fire five rounds. Time limit: twelve seconds. Switch magazines.
From the fifteen yard line, from a ready position, fire five rounds. Time limit: twelve seconds.
I have to score at least 70% of the maximum points to qualify. Points are determined by where each round strikes the silhouette target, assuming they hit the target at all. I usually shoot 93-95%. I always seem to have one round that falls outside the "coke bottle" portion of the target that has the highest point values. This annoys me. You can find the course qualification form here (Page on wa.gov).
I don't regard this course as especially difficult or taxing. I've always shot scores in the 90%-100% range, but I think that is more testimonial to the low difficulty of the courses than to my prowess with a handgun. I view myself as a slightly better than average shooter. There are certainly lots of people better than I am.
A more typical active duty qualification is 50 rounds. Some courses have real-world elements built in, such as firing at a target, running to cover maybe 30-50 yards away, and engaging another target from behind cover. More commonly, they're like the course described above, where you stand a prescribed distance from the target and shoot X rounds in Y seconds.
You might think that an officer who fails to score the minimum points is removed from duty until he can be given remedial training to address his marksmanship deficit. Some places do this, but more commonly, the officer is just sent through the course again until he gets it right. I find this as incredible as you do.
There are few mandated practice sessions in most agencies. Qualification is not the same as practice. Of course, the officer is free to purchase his own ammo and targets and practice as much as he wants on his own time, but most of them don't do that very often.
Adey Hill mentioned that I might have more information on U.S. policies than he does. Adey is used to a somewhat more challenging system for police who carry firearms. Aspiring Authorised Firearms Officers (AFOs) in the UK have to have several years of honorable service and demonstrate a high level of physical fitness before they can apply to be an AFO. They go through a week or so of familiarization with firearms (it's not unusual for a British citizen to have never touched a firearm) before they are approved to attend the full course, which is a month long. When and if they pass, they still don't carry the firearms, typically a military style semi-auto rifle and a semi-auto handgun, routinely. Instead, the firearms reside in a locked compartment of their two-AFO patrol vehicle, and they can remove them only on order from a relatively high-ranking member of the police service, or on their own under very limited, stringent conditions that almost never happen.
AFOs train with firearms about one day a month, and have an extended training session one to two weeks each year. By the time an AFO has completed his initial certification, he has had more firearms training than most U.S. cops receive over their entire careers. Yet, U.S. officers carry their firearms every day, on duty and off, and deploy them according to their agency's policy and their own discretion.
This is only one of several areas where U.S. law enforcement training needs improvement, but I don't see it happening soon. Instead, money and resources are invested in trendy things such as telling cops to close their eyes, take deep breaths, and go to their happy place when they're confronted by angry people (NY cops told to 'close eyes' during volatile situations).
You can have better police, but that will be more expensive.
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