“After several fatal police shootings this year, a new memo sent out to police is asking that officers work on their firearm skills.” Ah. We were wondering how many unarmed civilians had to eat lead before someone in NYPD Commissioner Kelly’s office addressed the troops’ lack of ballistic skills. But don’t get the idea that the new “Tactical Awareness Bulletin” has anything to do with either the Empire State Building shooting or the terminal result of an apparent road rage incident by a member of Bloomberg’s Army on the Grand Central Parkway. No, not at all. The NYPD brass says it’s just a happy little coinky-dink and they’re stickin’ to that story . . .
“The bulletin advises police to take cover, slow down and assess and use firearms control when dealing with a difficult situation.”
Always good advice. We’d love to see what other words of wisdom command central has for the troops. Despite furious Googling, we couldn’t find the memo on line. h/t to all the media mavens who saw the TAB but didn’t provide even a small sip to their customers/New York City taxpayers.
So we reached-out to the NYPD Press Relations Department. Officer Duffy told TTAG that the Bulletin hasn’t been released to New York’s Finest (our term). Yet. Nor could he tell us when that might occur. “It’s a draft copy.”
As for when the press (i.e. us) might get ahold of this Tactical Awareness Bulletin, fuhgeddaboutit. “That information isn’t made public.” God forbid. Noel Polanco was unavailable for comment.
Doesn’t requiring responsibility take all the fun out of being a member of Bloomingbutt’s army?
Ah. That’s interesting. I suppose time will tell if the NYPD’s triggermen have improved. I have an outside suspicion that a training memo will not vastly improve marksmanship, but I’m just a doubting and suspicious person sometimes.
And rightly so.
Slow down, take your time and you can hit twice as many innocents.
A memo is not what’s needed. The entire admin of NYC and NYPD needs to be canned. And the rank and file NYPD needs to be intensively retrained. Ain’t gonna happen so we’ll continue seeing bad shoots by NYPD.
Come on now! These are PROFESSIONALS! We civvies can’t be allowed to own guns cuz we might kill somebody!
That said, 99.999% of cops never draw their sidearm and when they do, they don’t tend to hit bystanders.
My remarks are only addresses to the NYPD. I support cops as a rule. But NYPD, they need to step up their game. And most of it’s in the admin of the city.
@Todd S
99.999 % equals one in 100,000. I don’t think you’re statistic is quite right, sir. I work in SoCal, and 90 % of the folks that work the road for more than 6 months have drawn their firearm, whether it be for a felony stop, felony arrest, building search, shooting, etc. That number is informal, but based upon talking, training, and working the road shoulder to shoulder with 5-0 for more than 10 years. I am sure that ratios are different in smaller, less populous (and perhaps less evil) cities, but the majority of our law enforcement are located in and about major metropolitan areas, and if they have made any felony arrests or pursuit / stolen car stops, than they have at least drawn their firearms at some point.
Dude… its a WAG. Wild Ass Guess. I didn’t actually take the time to look up numbers in the FBI databases. If you wish to cite (actual, non-anecdotal) statistics, feel free. If you didn’t get the gist of my statement, you won’t get the gist of this one either.
That being said, of the 4 deputies I know, personally, only one had to unholster his weapon while on duty for anything other than inspection. They all confirm, however, that there are times when each of them has had his hand on the pistol.
Sorry about the “flame” content of my comment yesterday. I was f”ed up on goofballs for a minor surgical procedure. A must sincerely apologize to Accur81 (and the readers of TTAG) for my behavior.
But will the officers point out that the departments policy of a 12 lb trigger pull for every round fired is a very negative factor to competency and accuracy with the firearm while under stress in an actual confrontation?
If NYPD is serious, that’s a good place to start.
Good point. Change the 12lb trigger and get a lot more practice.
Recall that NYPD a Union dominated Org. rife with corruption. Fire em all, ban the Union and rehire the good ones
I managed to obtain a copy of the bulletin! Here it is, reproduced in full:
“Don’t shoot innocent civilians unless absolutely necessary. It still remains Department policy to shoot innocent civilians if they’re black and carrying a shiny object that could be confused with a gun, such as a comb or iPhone, or if they make a furtive movement, such as breathing.”
Ha! I’m stealing that.
Maybe they could do something wild – like allow trigger pulls under 12 pounds and allow guns designed to fire DA / SA to actually fire in single action….
Or single action (light trigger pull) WITH A SAFETY lever.
The lawyers will never let that happen.
I bet it was a bulleted list.
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