Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Abstract: The US Supreme Court’s decisions in Tennessee v. Garner (1985), Graham v. Conner (1989) and City of Canton v. Harris (1989) have influenced the course of police firearms and deadly force training over the past two decades. The vast majority of advances in this area of training are associated with the post-Garner era. Police academies and police departments, however, hardly are immune to organizational inertia that can impede the implementation of important, comprehensive and far-reaching changes to recruit and in-service training policies and programs. Because it is difficult to determine the impact of these landmark cases—as well as the direct and indirect affects upon accreditation bodies, state training commission mandates, and professional associations of executives and instructors—it is essential that researchers and practitioners be knowledgeable about the prior evolution of this training. Beyond chronicling this period is the importance of clearly understanding the state of this critical training in the early 1980s that subsequently provided the foundation for contemporary programs. This paper therefore highlights the major developmental eras in police firearm and deadly force training, examines key implications for these training programs from the past two decades, and offers recommendations for future evaluation research. Evaluation research holds much promise for generating findings useful for continuously improving training and, therefore, police and public safety when officers encounter the most dangerous suspects.