False-Positive: A Typology of Police Shooting Errors

• In Event: Decision Making of Criminal Justice Actors

Abstract

Few things conjure the innate American mistrust of government more or have the potential to summon greater public backlash than police actions that result in the death of a citizen. Particularly when the involved citizen was unarmed and/or did not appear to be an immediate threat to the involved officer(s). Scharf and Binder (1983) called these types of shootings false-positive errors. That is, the police shoot someone they believe is armed and/or dangerous but who is actually neither armed nor immediately dangerous. It turns out, police shooting errors are much more diverse than this and may actually occur more often than desired outcomes. According to James Reason (1990), human error is relatively rare but, where it does appear, it tends to be systematic. Similarly situated people tend to process information in similar ways and situations that result in error tend to result in repeated errors over time and across individuals. With this in mind, this study examined police shootings that resulted in error. The typology of police shooting errors that emerged will contribute to the literature on police use of deadly force and could have significant practical implications for police training and tactics.

Author

• Paul Taylor, University at Albany - SUNY School of Criminal Justice