Why Police In Many Other Countries Rarely Use Their Guns

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The United States is becoming an armed camp, with more and more states passing laws that allow people to more easily purchase and carry guns, including handguns, and assault rifles.  The bizarre and ludicrous sight of rednecks carrying such weapons openly is, in some states, de rigueur. This is one of the many reasons, of course, why America’s police need to carry guns.  Why we use them more frequently than our European and Asian counterparts is more complicated.

The following article was written by Sara Miller Llana who is The Christian Science Monitor’s Europe Bureau Chief, based in Paris.  It is reprinted here with permission from TakePart.com.

The officer, alert but cautious, pounds on the suspect’s door. “Polizei!” he says forcefully, in his native German. A man thrusts open the door and walks out. His hands are at his side, but the policeman notices a gun tucked into the man’s belt. He pulls out his own firearm in response. He then moves briskly backward, coaxing the man to place his weapon on the ground.

Police guard the British prime minister's residence, 10 Downing Street. (Photo: Olivia Harris/Reuters)
Police guard the British prime minister’s residence, 10 Downing Street. (Photo: Olivia Harris/Reuters)

The cop is commended for his actions.

The next officer up bangs on the same door. “Polizei!,” he says. This time the person walks out carrying a baton, not a gun. So the cop doesn’t pull out his pistol. He brandishes instead a can of pepper spray – a reflex response that also garners praise afterward.

The scene here in what looks like an outdoor movie set seems as if it would be basic enough training at almost any police academy in the world. But today’s course for the new recruits in the Ruhr Valley in western Germany represents just one small part of an educational process that will last for three years, during which the officers will be drilled in alternatives to pulling a trigger. Today’s shooting training is subtitled, tellingly, “Don’t shoot.” And it’s far from the only lesson they’ll receive in restraint. Each recruit earns a bachelor’s degree as part of basic police training – a requisite before getting a badge and a beat.

Those in charge of this vast complex in Selm, in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, say the rigorous education standards help to widen an officer’s vision when stress narrows it – when he or she has only seconds to consider how to confront a menacing suspect.

“In every head of every policeman there is the aim not to shoot,” says Col. Uwe Thieme, the four-star senior police director at the state’s office for education, training, and human resources. “We try to make all police officers recognize that you are not a good guy if you are shooting. You are a good guy if you are not shooting.”

Their message is sinking in. In a nation grappling with neo-Nazism, new displays of intolerance against immigrants, and the threat of Islamic terrorism, German police rarely pull their guns. So far this year researchers have tallied four fatal shots fired by police. In the United States, there have been more than 400.

Nor is Germany alone. Around the world, police shootings are a rarity in many industrialized nations – even some with serious crime problems. For instance:

  • Canada recorded an average of 12 fatal police shootings a year between 1999 and 2009.
  • British police fired their weapons on just 51 occasions between 2003 and 2013.
  • In Japan, the last time a suspect was shot by a police officer was in 2012.

Now, as a handful of highly publicized police shootings fray already taut relations between police and black communities in the United States, experts and law enforcement authorities are searching for ways to solve a pressing social problem – and wondering whether other nations might hold lessons in how to do it.

America, to be sure, is a different country. Some argue that the ubiquity of guns in America is a major reason that many seemingly innocuous incidents escalate into fatal shootings. At the same time, racial tensions in the U.S. are more pronounced than in many other countries. Yet analysts believe that other nations have adopted a number of practices that contribute to less-contentious relations between police and residents – and might make a difference on U.S. streets. These range from more-rigorous police training, to changing the way officers interact with residents, to requiring more education for cops.

“In Germany, a gun is not sexy; it is not part of [a police officer’s] masculinity…,” says Joachim Kersten, a professor at the German Police University in Muenster, noting that knowledge is the key to defusing tense situations. “If [police] have to be dominant in a situation, they don’t need a gun for that.”

Read more at TakePart.com.

 

About Post Author

Professor Mike

Professor Mike is a left-leaning, dog loving, political junkie. He has written dozens of articles for Substack, Medium, Simily, and Tribel. Professor Mike has been published at Smerconish.com, among others. He is a strong proponent of the environment, and a passionate protector of animals. In addition he is a fierce anti-Trumper. Take a moment and share his work.
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Bill Formby
8 years ago

Since most of you were not around in the early 1970’s, except Mike of course (Mike has been around since someone said “let there be light :)), and those that were would not have kept up with the research that was being done at the time, I will enlighten you on a couple of points. A number of projects were developed and run which clearly showed that police in America could be trained to handle situations with resorting to force of any kind and especially deadly force. William Hewitt, et. al., conducted a project in New York City with a group of officers in dealing with domestic violence. In reviewing the officers prior handling of 1500 DV calls there had been more than 250 officer injuries while dealing with the persons involved. After the training on how to be less confrontational the same group of officers over the next 1500 calls had 1 officer injury and that was a dog bite.
In a study conducted by myself and a colleague on training given compared to what officers actual done it was clear that police were trained for perceive needs not according what police actually did. Patrol officers, who generally make up an average 70% of most departments will spend as much as 85% of their time in non crime related contacts with citizens. However, the training they receive for these type of contact was less than 26% of the overall training in 25 major departments around the country. The majority of training time (average 64%) was devoted to physical training including the use of firearms. While this study put forth the argument that the emphasis of training time indicated to new officers the emphasis on field use it was not suggested that time be taken away from the physical training. Rather it was suggested that overall training be increased in the area of human relations and how to approach citizens in non crime related situations including recognizing persons with mental health issues and how to deal with them.
While serving as a police officer in Tuscaloosa, Alabama we had to regularly deal with persons with mental health issues. The state’s largest mental hospital, a large Veterans Administration hospital with a large mental health unit, and the states only hospital and school for the Intellectually Persons. It was not unusual for us to run across people who were out on the street from any of these institutions. 99% of the time these people were not dangerous but could easily become frightened and defensive if not approached in the correct way. In any case, police who approach citizens with their authoritarian “command presence’ can frighten, and or offend most citizens. In some cases this issue is exasperated with the citizen is black because many believe they are being singled out by law enforcement. In some cases this may be true and in others it may not be but the real issue is perception. If the citizen perceives s/he is being single out it becomes reality to him or her. If the officer perceives that the citizen is a high threat risk to him or her because the person is black that is the officer’s reality. Whether either of these is actually true does not matter because perception is reality to each individual. The problem can only be addressed through more and better training for the police officer and reinforcement of the standard safety procedures the officer should follow in certain situations.
There is another area where some of these conflicts can be reduced and that is through better communications between police and the community. This burden also falls to the police to instigate. It is difficult for some officers to grasp because they go into police work to be “crime fighters” not to get to know the people they supposedly serve. While many people today seem to think that these problems are something new they should go read the the section on police in the 1967 Presidents Commission on Law Enforcement and the Criminal Justice System: The Challenge of Crime in a Free Society and the the 1973 Standards and Goals of the Criminal Justice System: Police. The answers are there but the leaders of our government have simply ignored them. Lest one think that these studies were just pipe dreams of academic types they should look at the commission members, It included current and former police chiefs such as August Vollmer, James O. Wilson, Joseph McNamara, Clarence Kelly, etc. all of whom had extensive experience in the field of policing.
In conclusion, one of America’s problems has become our arrogance that we do not need to know how others do things. We have, in this day and time, become a people who want things and we want it instantly. We have forgotten how much those before us worked and struggled to bring this country from nothing to become a powerful nation that is supposed to stand for fairness and justice for every person. At this point we have let our greed and desire for power over ride all that was made great about America. I have said this before and I will say it again. If we as a people do not get a handle on these problems then things will continue to get ugly to the point where we will fall like many great nations before us have fallen.

Tall Stacey
Reply to  Bill Formby
8 years ago

When that “let there be light” call came, I was the Gaffer….

And it seems to me that back in the… not that long ago…. the weapon of first choice was a billy club, now called a baton apparently (though I have no idea why). My point is, that in the recent spate of police shooting unarmed people, (or threatening teenagers at a swimming pool with a gun), I would think the club would be sufficient – assuming of course that the officer was properly trained in and physically capable of its use.

Sure, if somebody is shooting at you, shoot back. And I understand the necessity to deal with immediate lethal threat. But… reach for the baton first in most situations. As I recall in close quarters it can be quite effective.

Do they even carry them anymore?

jess
8 years ago

Well that’s what happens when idiots are elected and laws like the Patriot act allow for the militarization of our police forces due to said leaders making everyone scared of everyone else. I can see needing a military like thing for the SWAT team but for everyday police officers um no…just no… you don’t need all that just because commander cuckoo bananas said you need it to fight them there so we don’t fight them here bullshit. Why can’t they just shoot to injure, if they really have to pull out a gun is what I want to know. Some of these people getting into law enforcement, use the gun as a penis enlarger is my opinion.

8 years ago

I have to wonder what might have happened had it been the German Polizei chasing an unarmed escaped convict. Would they have shot him twice in the back claiming he was an “obvious threat” and would it have been “well within the law” as they are claiming today?

8 years ago

As a career police officer I can tell you we don’t get enough training, and Mike is right about small budgets, reluctant commanders and etc.

Glenn Geist
8 years ago

No, of course we can’t learn – or even discuss – what happens elsewhere. It weakens our arguments and our sense of being unique.

I find it hard to argue against more training and continued training for police officers.

8 years ago

You aren’t seriously arguing the USA could learn something from another country, are you? Especially a socialist one with the best economy and lowest unemployment in the Eurozone? 🙂

Marsha Woerner
8 years ago

Hear hear!
Control, NOT KILLING!

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