Reducing the Rates of Officer Involved Shootings

Overview 

The officer involved shooting is the general topic of concern in this article. The rate of police brutality is increasing by the day, and many innocent people are daily getting maimed by the bullet from their land. Its increase has sparked a serious debate on what needs to be in place for this issue to be controlled. The officer involved in the shooting has a different definition depending on the context where the words are mentioned. However, it means any police officers who draw his or her gun on or off duty and shoot at any person or animals. In this case, it will be used to show any officers who use her or his gun to shoot at a human being. The main issue on this topic is that there has been an increase in the officer-involved shooting in the country. Studies have revealed that most of these shooting are not genuine and the officers find themselves on the wrong side of the low after killing innocent people ( Alpert, Rivera, & Lott, 2012). What need to be in place for the incidence of the police involved shooting to reduce in the country? To get know more on what is needed to get this under control, the author of this article invites you to go through this article critically since the issues as well as its solution is well presented in this paper. 

Significant 

The officer involved shootings is a very significant topic and issues in this country. The statics have it that the number of shooting is ever increasing and incidence are no longer appealing. What has to be known in this case is that it is wrong to kill a person or animals even if the person is a suspect. Let the law judge the culprit, and they should never be judges by stray of bullets. In the Bible, it is made clear among the Ten Commandments that Thou shall not kill. This statement needs to be understood clearly. The significance of this topic is too big to be underestimated ( Mohandie & Meloy, 2010). First, an increase in the officer-involved shooting is an indication that the police departments have something wrong on how they handle their offices. It means that maybe the offices involved in these shootings are not well schooled psychological on handling pressure when they are subjected one, the only solution they have is to pull the trigger. Alternatively, the increased in the officer involved shootings May also means that the citizens themselves upon involved in this issues don't understand what they should do or the laws that either protect them or give the officers power to handle them forcefully. It may mean that since the citizens have less knowledge on these issues or on what to do when the police confront them in this situation, they fight back and the officers have to defend themselves. If these cases are true, then it means that this topic needs to be addressed to both citizens and the officers themselves to have a meaningful solution to the problem. Both the citizens and the officers in charge have to play their parts to ensure that the officer-involved shooting is significantly put under control ( Kleider, Parrott, & King, 2010). 

Religious Perspective 

Killing is forbidden even in the bible. The Bible condemns the action of killing either knowing or unknowingly. In the book of Exodus, one of the commandments which are clear is that "Do not Kill." It means that bible also acknowledges that the fact that killing is very wrong. It is also worth noting that the police officers should not judge the person whether they are suspect or not. They need to have them arrested and leave the rest to the law. In the Book of romans13:4 recognize the fact that even the police officers should act under the rule. The verse states precisely that for the one in authority is your God's servant for your good. However, if you involved yourself in wrongdoing, be of respect to the rules and guidelines which are set for such purposes ( Ellis, 2017). Do not bear a sword for the reason. They are the Good’s servants as well as His agents for the wrath brought for the wrongdoer's punishment. This verse is an essential part of our discussion in this article. The verse tries to suggest that the officers are ruled by those who have given them commandment and have directed them to have the suspect arrested. They should not shoot them aimlessly unless the suspects jeopardize officers' security. On the other hand, this verse in the bibles also tries to suggest that the citizens have a part to play to avoid the incidences of the officer-involved shootings ( Selengut, 2017). The Bible puts it very clear that those who should guide us on what to do are God's servant or agents, the citizens can make mistakes and they need to be corrected, this which can take the form of punishment in the court of law. This verse urges them not to be afraid or tries to raise a weapon to the offices who are the agents' of God in this case. If they do so, they are assured that any circumstance is possible. 

Solutions 

Having seen the implication and the significance this issue and how broad this matter is, the central question is what needs to be done to ensure that this incidence is reduced? This forms the basis of this discussion. This article, therefore, provide a policy which needs to be in place so that the officer-involved shootings should be reduced or minimized to a level which can be good for both the officers and the citizens involved. The article provides a solution which will be very paramount in having this issue controlled. The answer is tripling edged and should cut across the offices and the citizens as well as the government. The solution for this reduces of the police officers shooting incidence is increase training and awareness policies. What is the meaning of this? 

This solution is very simple it means that the government needs to facilitate the training among the police offices and awareness among the citizens in the country and more impotently, facilitate the implementation of the policy ( Bohl, 2013). The step in this solution is to come up with a policy which is enforced in the police departments that there certificate for qualification must bear psychological expertise to deal with pressure mostly at such incidences. In this step, the government will have restricted that only the officers who have this type of training are allowed to practice and given license to hold weapons as well as using them. How important is this policy with regards to control of the officer involved shooting? It has been proven beyond reasonable doubt that upon faced with situations where the suspect attempt murder, tries to escape or retaliate in a manner which suggests that they are about to fire at the police officer, a good number of police officers are always very stressful at this particular situations. Stress is hazardous in a situation where an officer is under tension. Science has revealed that when a human being is faced with life-threatening situations or what they perceive as life-threatening incidence, the human being goes to what is described as the autopilot. This is a situation where we are unable to have the self-control. All energy in this situation is directed towards escaping the danger. Much more science is used to explain this concept, but since the primary interest in not science-based, the focus is on the perceived threat and the response of officers. What does this implies for most officers who find themselves in these situations? This implies that most officers pull the trigger unknowingly upon facing a threat. They find themselves in a situation where they try to escape the situation and thus, they put all their energy on their hand and pull the trigger unknowingly due, to what is called the autopilot in this situation. So, what next it has been revealed that psychological training for the officers is the antidote for the out-piloting. 

Psychological training for the self-control and how to handle this situation psychological can be the best strategy to help the officer's deal with shooting even if the suspect is innocent or has no intention of attacking the officers ( Obasogie & Newman, 2016). Because the statistics show that most of the officer-involved shooting take place accidentally, the policy which demands that all officers must undergo the psychological training for the self-control mostly when the officers perceive the threat is one of the best control mechanism for this issues. The pros of this particular strategy are numerous some of them include the following. First, it would prevent the accidental killing which happens during the officer-involved shooting incidences. It also makes the officers very vigilant before deciding whether or not to shoot the suspect. In this case, the officers will always make a decision which is justified, and even if the case is taken to the court of law, the ruling will favor them. However, a coin has both sides, and there are also cons of this strategy. First, it is very possible that most of the officers will either get killed in this shooting or injuries will increase on their side. Why? It is very important to note that it is only the officer who is trained in this case to have his or her emotion controlled psychological ( Tracy, 2010). The suspect is not, and their primary intention is to escape from the police or find a hiding place to avoid facing the strong hands of the Law. It is therefore likely that the officers as they still deciding whether the suspect is a threat to their life or not, they shall have been shot by the suspect. 

The second part of this solution is awareness creation among the citizens. What does this policy entail? This policy is critical I have the incidence of the officer-involved shooting reduction. It is worthy to remember that the officers are sometimes forced to fire due to either stubbornness or naivety of the citizens. However, it is also worth noting that the citizens are sometimes not to be blamed. Some of them in fact, a good number of citizens, are not aware of the laws that protect them during this circumstance and the laws or when the laws give the officers to relate using force during situations. The policy should aim at encouraging the citizens to familiarize themselves with the laws that guide and protect them. The citizens need to get it very clear that officers follow laws and also they have to adhere to the rules which are put in their line of duty. These are rules, laws, and case which the officers have to be in line with to have their duties as officers done successfully. “Citizens should have a working knowledge of the laws of their state, county, and municipal entities so they can reduce the likelihood of a negative encounter with an officer.” The importance of having g the citizens who are aware of the laws that guide them is that when they are confronted with the situation where the police officers point a gun at them, they know how to perfectly retaliate in a manner that will not provoke the officers ( Vickers & Lewinski, 2012). They will know when and on which occasion the laws give the officers power to shoot or to protect them by involving in the shooting. As it has been proven on many occasions, the citizens in this many circumstances act provocatively and hence make the officers fire at them either maiming them or killing them. This can be reduced if the government put in a policy where the citizens are educated about the laws that guide them in this situation. The laws should have the following instilled in the citizens. 

First, the citizens have to be told that even the law enforces human being with families, and hence must always protect themselves. The laws protect them and give them the mandate to protect themselves on the circumstances where there is a perceived threat to their life. They should get that the police officers are mandated and give full authority to the laws to use deadly force in case they are in danger ( Chopko, 2010). Thus the citizens should not point a gun at the police officer whether it is a toy gun or a real gun. They need to obey the lawful commands of the officers; they should not run in such a situation where a gun is pointed at them by the officers, and most impotently, they should use common senses. The prose, in this case, is that awareness of the citizens on the laws is very important since it will reduce their ignorance and hence make them behave in this situation. The cone, in this case, is that it is very difficult to achieve this strategy to among all the citizens. It will be very difficult for the government to enhance this rule to all the citizens. 

The last solution is the proper implementation of the two solutions. Putting this solution on the paper look very easy, however, if they are not well implemented in the system, then it like nothing has been done. In this case, the three Cs implementation strategies may be very paramount in this case. The first C is to clarify the policy to those who are a concern, in this case, the police and the citizens. The second C is critical. This is very important in proper policy or strategy implementation ( Petersson et al., 2017). Communication should be enhanced among the people who are directly or indirectly affected by the policy. The last part is cascading the policies. This includes the government negotiating with those who can influence this change and also make the officers and the citizens embrace these strategies. These can be the politicians and the rest. The cone in this situation is that in case the implementation is not well done, there high chances of the resistance which will worsen off the situation 

Recommendation 

Based on the fact that only the officers are trained to use psychology as per the suggested policy, they should also be allowed the full mandate to protect themselves if the suspect is not cooperating. This is very important since it will reduce the chances of being shot by the suspects. Second I would recommend proper use of media involvement in making the government educate the citizens on the issue of the public aloes and mostly those that involved the officer-involved shootings ( Alpert, 2016). The last part of it is that I would recommend change agents to be used for proper implementation of these solutions to enhance their embracement and reduce chances of resistance. 

Conclusion 

In conclusion, the paper has explored the officer involved shootings with the aim to provide a lasting solution which will help in reducing the otherwise over-rising instances in the country. The article has recommended the training and awareness creation as the best option for these issues. This has been well explored in this paper. 

Reference 

Alpert, G. P. (2016). Toward a National Database of Officer ‐ Involved Shootings. Criminology & Public Policy , 15 (1), 237-242. 

Alpert, G. P., Rivera, J., & Lott, L. (2012). Working toward the truth in officer-involved shootings: Memory, stress, and time. FBI L. Enforcement Bull. , 81 , 1. 

Mohandie, K., & Meloy, J. R. (2010). Hostage and barricade incidents within an officer-involved shooting sample: Suicide by cop, intervention efficacy, and descriptive characteristics. Journal of Police Crisis Negotiations , 10 (1-2), 101-115. 

Kleider, H. M., Parrott, D. J., & King, T. Z. (2010). Shooting behavior: How working memory and negative emotionality influence police officer shoot decisions. Applied cognitive psychology , 24 (5), 707-717. 

Obasogie, O. K., & Newman, Z. (2016). Black Lives Matter and respectability politics in local news accounts of officer-involved civilian deaths: An early empirical assessment. Wis. L. Rev. , 541. 

Tracy, D. J. (2010). Handling Officer-Involved Shootings. The Police Chief , 10 , 40. 

Chopko, B. A. (2010). Posttraumatic distress and growth: An empirical study of police officers. American Journal of Psychotherapy , 64 (1), 55-72. 

Vickers, J. N., & Lewinski, W. (2012). Performing under pressure: Gaze control, decision making and shooting a performance of elite and rookie police officers. Human movement science , 31 (1), 101-117. 

Bohl, N. (2013). Professionally Administered Critical Incident Debriefing for Police Officers. Police psychology into the 21st century , 169. 

Petersson, U., Bertilsson, J., Fredriksson, P., Magnusson, M., & Fransson, P. A. (2017). The police officer involved shootings–retrospective study of situational characteristics. Police practice and research , 18 (3), 306-321. 

Ellis, L. (2017). Religious variations in fundamentalism in Malaysia and the United States: Possible relevance to religiously motivated violence. Personality and Individual Differences , 107 , 23-27. 

Selengut, C. (2017). Sacred Fury: Understanding religious violence . Rowman & Littlefield.