A lousy way to Die Hard
by Tom Sullivan
Adopted in the early 1980s, the “21-foot rule” in policing originated from "a rudimentary series of tests" and an article in SWAT magazine. Yet it has since become "dogma" that an armed attacker within 21 feet represents a deadly threat, and could charge and attack before most officers could draw and fire their weapons. Such dogmas die hard. In the aftermath of recent shootings by police, trainers may be beginning to rethink how police use deadly force according to the New York Times:
Like the 21-foot rule, many current police practices were adopted when officers faced violent street gangs. Crime rates soared, as did the number of officers killed. Today, crime is at historic lows and most cities are safer than they have been in generations, for residents and officers alike. This should be a moment of high confidence in the police, said Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, a law enforcement policy group. Instead, he said, policing is in crisis.
“People aren’t buying our brand. If it was a product, we’d take it out of the marketplace and re-engineer it,” Mr. Wexler said. “We’ve lost the confidence of the American people.”
It's not as if it is not dangerous out there. A 25 year-old NYPD officer, Brian Moore, died Monday after being shot in the face while attempting to question a suspect. A lousy way to die. Still:
The Dallas police chief, David O. Brown, said at a policing conference in February: “Sometimes it seems like our young officers want to get into an athletic event with people they want to arrest. They have a ‘don’t retreat’ mentality. They feel like they’re warriors and they can’t back down when someone is running from them, no matter how minor the underlying crime is.”
For Walter Scott, who ran after being stopped by a North Charleston police officer over a broken tail light, that warrior mindest may have been the lousy reason he lost his life. And 12-year-old Tamir Rice's in Cleveland, and John Crawford's at an Ohio Walmart, and Seattle woodcarver John T. Williams' life as well. While no charges were filed in the Williams case, investigators believed the shooting was unjustified. By approaching to within 21 feet instead of backing off, the officer had unnecessarily escalated the confrontation. Per the Times:
“Officer Birk created the situation which he claims he had to use deadly force to get out of,” a police review board concluded. The officer resigned.
Except the shooter only lost his job.