Category Archives: Force (use of force)

NYPD Use of force outside Empire State Building: should we be investing in more use-of-force training?

In a shooting just after 9:00 A.M. Friday, two NYPD officers shot and killed a man who’d just shot a former co-worker. and also wounded nine bystanders.

By Associated Press, Published: August 24 | Updated: Saturday, August 25, 5:04 PM

 

NEW YORK — All nine people injured during a dramatic confrontation between police and a gunman outside the Empire State Building were wounded by gunfire from the two officers, police said Saturday, citing ballistics evidence. Via NYPD: Ballistics show all 9 wounded outside Empire State Building were shot by police – The Washington Post:

The veteran patrolmen who opened fire on the suit-clad gunman, Jeffrey Johnson, had only an instant to react when he whirled around and pointed a .45-caliber pistol at them as they approached him from behind on a busy sidewalk.

Officer Craig Matthews shot seven times, and Officer Robert Sinishtaj fired nine times, police said. Neither had ever fired their weapons before on a patrol. The volley of gunfire felled Johnson in just a few seconds and left nine other people bleeding on the sidewalk. In the initial chaos Friday, it wasn’t clear whether Johnson or the officers were responsible for the trail of the wounded, but based on ballistic and other evidence, “it appears that all nine of the victims were struck either by fragments or by bullets fired by police,” Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly told reporters Saturday at a community event in Harlem. Police officials have said the officers appeared to have no choice but to shoot Johnson, whose body had 10 bullet wounds in the chest, arms and legs.

After-the-fact criticism is a cheap shot, and while these two cops did what they had to do, it’s still fair to question NYPD firearms policy: are our officers using the best handguns, given our population density, and whether we’re giving our officers not only the best training possible, but sufficient hours at sufficient intervals.

The truth be told – whatever the merits and failings of N.Y.P.D. Academy training, once it’s over, our cops are going to the range to qualify twice a year. It’s not enough.

Safety issues with New York's most highly trained unit

NYPD Emergency Services Unit ESU patch

Safety issues with New York’s most highly trained unit, the Emergency Services Unit, which has the NYPD’s heavy-weapons, hostage-rescue, and counter-sniper functions, among others. Of course,  it’s also the most heavily armed, perhaps the only officers with regular access to long guns and automatic weapons.  Thus,  Gawker’s report,  Elite NYPD Unit Having Gun Safety Issues,  is particularly disturbing.

From Jeff Neumann’s piece in Gawker:

Just last week, an ESU officer shot and killed a Bronx man, Alberto Colon while they were searching for his son, an alleged drug dealer. The officer who shot him was trying to turn the flashlight on his weapon on. But that’s not the only big time screw up. According to a report in the the Daily News:

A member of the ESU sniper team safeguarding the tree-lighting center at the tourist magnet accidentally let loose a rifle round on Nov. 30. It happened about 90 minutes after the ceremony, as the sniper teams were pulling out. The round hit a building and was found a block and a half away.

Four days earlier, an ESU detective getting out of his vehicle to respond to a report of a barricaded gunman accidentally fired a shotgun in Harlem. The blast went through an apartment window on W. 136th St.

As in the Rockefeller Center incident, no one was injured.

This is – let’s be clear – not about  “bad cops.”  It’s about cops working too much overtime, and an appallingly low ratio of training time to field time. The police officers need more basic firearms handling and usage.  Less practice results in worse outcomes. It’s that simple. We appreciate Gawker’s coverage – excellent overall – but the remark about a cop being overweight is unfair. Consider the training that a U.S. infantry soldier receives – months or years – before being considered, say, for the Rangers – much less the Special Forces, SEALs or that more elite unit whose name we’re not to say aloud.

Continue reading →