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Date: April 30, 2024 Tue
Time: 12:22 am
Time: 12:22 am
Results for police-involved shootings
1 results foundAuthor: Kaminski, Robert J. Title: A Descriptive Analysis of Foot Pursuits in the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Summary: Greater attention has been paid to the risks associated with police foot pursuits in recent years by both the law enforcement community (e.g., Bohrer, Davis & Garrity, 2000; Burke, Owen & Nilson, 2005; and the media (e.g., Graham, 2009; Pfeifer, 2007; Simpson, 2007). One of the focal concerns has been foot pursuits in which law enforcement officers discharged their firearms. An investigation by Simpson (2007) found that 12% of 33 suspects shot and killed by deputies in DeKalb County occurred during a foot pursuit. An internal review by the Philadelphia Police Department found that nearly half of police shootings from 1998 to 2003 occurred during foot a pursuit (Graham, 2009). Bobb (2003, 2005) found in the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LASD) that 27% of 44 shooting incidents 2003-2004 involved foot pursuits and that 22% of 239 shootings 1997-2002 occurred during or at the termination of a foot pursuit. Although these statistics highlight the potential for deputy-involved shootings (DISs) and fatalities during foot chases and are thus useful for motivating the development of policies and training to reduce their incidence, sampling first on fatalities or on DISs and subsequently examining how many incidents involved foot pursuits exaggerates the risks associated with this tactic (this is commonly referred to as the “base rate problem”; see, e.g., Garner and Clemmer, 1986; Kaminski and Sorensen, 1995). To accurately assess the likelihood of DISs and fatalities associated with foot pursuits, one must first sample or select all foot pursuits over some specified period of time and then examine how many involved shootings, fatalities, or other outcomes of interest. Although sampling first on foot pursuits would almost certainly show that shootings and fatalities are statistically rare events relative the total number of pursuits, there has unfortunately been no research to date using this approach. Accurate estimates of risk would be especially informative for law enforcement executives contemplating the adoption of more or less restrictive foot pursuit policies. DISs and fatalities, of course, are not the only potential hazards associated with foot pursuits. An arrest-based use-of-force study in one municipal agency found that pursuits increased the odds of officer use of force by 345% (Kaminski, DiGiovanni, and Downs, 2004). A limitation of this study, however, was that foot pursuits were not distinguished from motor vehicle pursuits. In other research, Brandl (1996) and Brandl and Stroshine (2003) analyzed the activities officers were involved in when they were injured accidentally or intentionally (i.e., assault-related injuries). They found that between 12 and 14 percent of injury incidents involved officers chasing suspects on foot and that the vast majority of injures were accident-related, but detailed analyses of foot pursuits were not presented. More recently, Kaminski (2007) surveyed over 250 deputies employed by the Richland (SC) County Sheriff’s Department (RCSD) regarding their experiences with foot pursuits. Sixty-two of 187 responding deputies (33%) reported being injured intentionally by suspects and 80 of 186 (43%) reported being injured accidentally during at least one pursuit since they began working for the RCSD (career-based estimates). Although the majority of injuries were minor, intentional injures caused deputies to miss an estimated 273 days of work and to work in a reduced capacity for 358 days. Accidental injuries caused deputies to miss an estimated 496 days of work and to work in a reduced capacity for 575 days. These estimates must be interpreted with caution, however, as respondents represented a nonrandom (59%) sample of deputies from the RCSD and recall is likely to be problematic for career-based estimates, especially for deputies with long tenures. Although the above studies begin to fill the gap in research on foot pursuits, none were able to analyze fatalities or firearm discharges associated with foot pursuits because such events were too rare, at least in the jurisdictions examined. It is important to note, however, that although fatalities and firearm discharges during foot pursuits appear to be rare, such findings should not negate or minimize the importance of policies and training designed to manage foot pursuits. Serious injuries and fatalities do occur during foot pursuits and all reasonable means should be taken to minimize their occurrence. Further, as suggested by findings from Kaminski (2007), even minor injuries may substantially impact agencies in terms of work days lost. Because few studies on foot pursuits have been conducted to date, the purpose of the present study is to provide a basic descriptive analysis of reported foot pursuits that could be linked to information contained in the Department’s Personnel Performance Index database (PPI). Information on the types of force used by and against deputies during foot pursuits, the types of injuries sustained and other information is presented. Details: Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina, Department of Criminology & Criminal Justice, 2010. 24p. Source: Internet Resource: accessed September 6, 2011 at: http://www.cas.sc.edu/crju/research/lacsd.footpursuits.pdf Year: 2010 Country: United States URL: http://www.cas.sc.edu/crju/research/lacsd.footpursuits.pdf Shelf Number: 122655 Keywords: Fleeing SuspectsFoot PatrolPolice InjuriesPolice Pursuits (Los Angeles)Police Use of ForcePolice-Involved Shootings |