A Descriptive Examination of Officer-involved Shooting Incidents in a Western County

• In Event: Police Use of Force: Tactics, Training and Liability

Abstract

In the past few years, officer-involved shooting (OIS) incidents have become the subject to a great deal of media attention. As with much of police officer use of force and lethal force, these incidents do not photograph well and are often tragic, even if the officer was justified in his or her actions. Furthermore, it is not always clear to outside parties what occurs within OIS incidents. This study examines almost 25 years of OIS incidents in an attempt to understand what transpires during these events. By using information from disposition letters from the District Attorney’s Office, information is coded into meaningful variables used for analysis. Findings indicate that mental illness plays a major role in OIS incidents, specifically incidents classified as “suicide by cop” which make up approximately a third of all incidents. Aside from OIS incidents that were driven by suicidal ideation, over half of the sample involved individuals who had attempted to shoot/stab the officer, had a prior criminal record, or were aggressive with officers during the incident. Significance tests were conducted on several variables to determine which were associated with suicide by cop incidents.

Authors

• Matt Richie, University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee

• Jonathan W. Caudill, California State University, Chico