How do you think an officer should be treated after he has shot and killed an offender: A. Like a suspect or a civilian witness–required to give a statement ASAP…isolated for fear he’ll collude with others to concoct a self-serving fairy tale of what happened…interrogated rather than interviewed, with every discrepancy and hole in his...Read More
For the first time, a scientific reconstruction of how an unarmed suspect must have moved during a confrontation with police has been successfully introduced into the British criminal justice system, exonerating 2 officers who were facing murder charges after shooting the man dead. The officers, who’d been accused of lying to cover up their “execution,”...Read More
Representatives of 2 elite British policing units and a major police union traveled to the Force Science Research Center this month [5/05] for a private 3-day update on the latest scientific findings about officer-involved shootings. Three of the visitors (Andrea Earl, Peter Smyth and Dave Bonnett) were spokespeople for the Metropolitan Police Federation while Mark...Read More
The first production model of the world’s newest and most sophisticated digital, high-definition use-of-force simulation system has been donated to the Force Science Research Center to deepen its investigations into officer-involved shootings and other lethal confrontations. The results may ultimately help protect your life on the street and your career and freedom in court. Presentation...Read More
Until the Force Science Research Center entered the case, no one knew precisely how Randall Carr ended up killed by a police bullet that tore into his body near his rectum and blew a hole in his heart. His angry relatives, with Johnnie Cochran’s legal team behind them, insisted it had to be a deliberate...Read More
The largest study of its kind has confirmed that LEOs commonly experience a wide and potentially “devastating” range of mental and emotional reactions to life-threatening encounters. But they show such remarkable resilience in bouncing back that, contrary to popular belief, very few actually leave law enforcement or suffer permanent damage from their traumatic encounters. The...Read More
A DEA special agent and former township SWAT officer who was indicted for first-degree manslaughter after killing a suspect who was fighting to grab the officer’s gun has been vindicated by a federal appeals court, thanks in part to studies by the Force Science Research Center. A grand jury in Brooklyn (NY) indicted the agent,...Read More
You’re trained that the surest way to prevent an unintentional discharge is to keep your finger outside the trigger guard until you’ve made the decision to shoot. But under stress, will you–can you–reliably do that? Maybe not, according to a study of police performance under realistic conditions. Indeed, a significant percentage of officers not only...Read More
