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As one of the most liabilityprone activities in law enforcement, deadly force decision making tops the list of training priorities for many agencies. An improper shooting decision carries the potential for costly civil damage awards, criminal prosecution, strained community relations, and ruined professional and personal lives.
Improving the decisions officers make in deadly force situations bolsters an agency's employee development process and can enhance its position against claims of negligent or inadequate training. Agencies can help officers make better decisions by employing three strategies: improving deadly force policies, training officers in survival physiology, and using dynamic training. These strategies can produce marked improvements by providing effective policy guidance to officers, enhancing their tactical skills, and increasing their confidence levels.
DEADLY FORCE POLICY
Before embarking on any effort to improve decision making, an agency needs an effective and practical deadly force policy. Officers need to know the parameters of their authority. Since the 1985 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Tennessee v. Garner,' most law enforcement agencies have adopted restrictive policies that rely on "defense of life" as the rationale for using deadly force. The Garner decision mandated policy improvements by forbidding the use of deadly force against fleeing felons not threatening death or serious injury to an officer or others. Defense of life is widely interpreted as the use of force by law enforcement officers in the performance of their duties to protect themselves or another innocent person from death or serious injury.
However, ambiguities often exist when officers attempt to apply policy in the dynamic, unforgiving environment of the street. A decision-making model can help to clarify policy and provide guidance for effective and legal deadly force decisions.
Decision Model: The Deadly Force Triangle
The deadly force triangle is a decision model designed to enhance an officer's ability to respond to a deadly force encounter while remaining within legal and policy parameters.2 The three sides of an equilateral triangle represent three factors-ability, opportunity, and jeopardy. All three factors must be present to justify deadly force.
In this model, ability means the suspect's physical capacity to harm an officer or another innocent person. This is widely interpreted as a suspect's being armed with a weapon capable of inflicting death or serious injury, such as a firearm,...