Police don't shoot to kill — here's what they do shoot for, Wichita trainer says

Police officers aren't trained to shoot to kill — they're trained to shoot to stop the threat.

That's what Lt. Chris Halloran, a 28-year veteran of the Wichita Police Department, told the Citizen Review Board on Thursday.

"We shoot to stop the threat, we don’t shoot to kill," Halloran said. "Sometimes when a person gets shot when we're trying to stop the threat, he or she may die. ... We're just trying to keep other people from getting hurt, or ourselves from getting hurt. We don't shoot to wound. ... "

Sometimes, he said, people ask him why police don't shoot someone in the leg, or shoot a weapon out of their hand.

"We train our officers to shoot upper center mass — No. 1 it's the biggest target — if we have to use lethal force," Halloran said. "If we have to shoot at somebody, it's hard enough to hit this, because very seldom is someone just standing there."

Halloran, who is the head of the firearms training facility, condensed his three-hour officer training presentation into a 45-minute PowerPoint and question-and-answer session with the Wichita police review board. He said movies make shooting look easier than it is.

"TV, Hollywood has made it look like you could slide into a room and shoot five people on the move," he said. "It is very difficult, even when you train all the time."

Most movies, he said, "don't do the police any favors."

"They make it look glamorous to shoot bad guys," Halloran said.

"It’s not a fun thing to do," he added.

Much of the department's use of force policy is based on local, state and federal law, as well as court rulings, Halloran said.

Lethal force can be used in self defense or in defense of others. Officers can also shoot a fleeing felon in some cases, he said, such as a robber who shot a bank teller and is running from police and may shoot more people during his escape

Verbal warnings by officers of use of force are required — but only when practical. Warnings aren't practical, he said, when giving one could cause the death of more people .

"Tell him what you want him to do and what will happen if he doesn't do it, that way they clearly understand," Halloran said of how he trains recruits. "Because a lot of folks are upset, they may be drunk or high, or both, they may have mental issues, so you need to speak in plain English."

While all officers must follow laws and policies, courts will take into consideration their training and experience when looking at whether their actions were reasonable during a shooting or other uses of force, he said.

"What would a reasonable cop, not someone who's sitting at home in their recliner watching the news saying, 'I only would have shot him in the foot,'" Halloran said. "No, we're talking about what a reasonable, trained, experienced officer, with that officer's years of training and experience, what would he or she have done?"

They also look at other factors.

"If I were a 5-foot-2 female officer, for example, been on 6 months, and a big guy — with no guns at all — but he's a big guy, says, 'I'm going to beat the heck out of you,' and he attacks a female officer," Halloran said, "there have been female officers nationwide — not just females but smaller officers — who have shot.

"We call them 'unarmed' — at least that's how they're referred to in articles. But the body size difference makes a huge difference. People in America, people in the world, kill each other without weapons every day."

Police don't necessarily have to see a weapon before using lethal force, Halloran said.

"Depends on the danger," he said. "There's a lot of what-ifs. Usually yes, but there are circumstances where — 'why are we there to begin with, what information were we given on the way to that call?' So it just depends on the information you're given."

Police supervisors also go to the scene and review what happened whenever any force is used. But when it comes to whether an officer's actions were reasonable, "You can't just easily say, 'Well, I was scared,' and then shot a person," Halloran said.

There are varying levels of force. An officer simply being present in uniform is considered force, as are verbal commands, he said.

In determining use of force, officers must consider whether the person has the ability and opportunity to put someone else in jeopardy.

"We're not going to pull our gun and shoot a person because he's walking down aisle three of Walmart (with a gun on his hip)," Halloran said. "But if he's walking into a school with a gun and he's looking all crazy and screaming how he's going to shoot people — again, totality of both circumstances."

In Halloran’s PowerPoint, a scale showed "uninformed opinion" outweighing "facts."

"Many times, when things are under investigation, we can't give out a lot of info, so people just develop their own opinions," he said. "We can't give that info … we can ruin the investigation if we do."

The scale tipped to "facts" as Halloran spoke about the role of the Citizen Review Board and Citizen Police Academy.

"As far as public perception," he said, "unfortunately sometimes negativity sells and that's what we see sometimes in the news is some negativity, but I can assure you there's a lot of great things going on in American law enforcement."

This story was originally published May 31, 2018 at 9:41 PM with the headline "Police don't shoot to kill — here's what they do shoot for, Wichita trainer says."