[2dogs]

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/ny-bc-ny--policestats-shoot0622jun22,0,6062906.story

Police firing fewer shots, have higher accuracy rate



June 22, 2003, 6:32 AM EDT


NEW YORK (AP) _ Statistics released by the police department show that officers are shooting less and finding their targets more.

Police had a 29 percent accuracy rate of 386 shots which hit their marks 113 times in 2002. The rate improved on the previous year when police had a 26 percent accuracy rate, The New York Post reported in Sunday editions.

Also in 2002, police increased their accuracy in shootouts to 18 percent and fired half as many shots as in 2000. Officers were struck only three times last year.

"We attribute this to our training in which we instruct police officers on how to avoid exposing themselves unnecessarily to danger," said Deputy Chief Michael Collins. "We are reducing the chance they will put themselves in must-shoot situations."

Collins said the overall rate for a police force of about 37,000 members makes the New York Police Department one of the nation's most restrained.

But not everyone is satisfied with the new figures.

"The fact they're hitting their targets more often does not speak to the fact of whether they're hitting the right people," civil rights lawyer Ron Kuby told The Post.

[TheeBadOne]

Now why post this? It doesn't poke fun at the cops or make them out to be incompetent. We've got 2 positive LEO threads on the same page! :neener:

[El Tejon]

Hooray for edjukashun!

Wise man in Tejas saith, "the more your cops train, the less they shoot!" Still a long road ahead, but making progress!:)

[Mikul]

Oh, okay, I'll do it...

Police had a 29 percent accuracy rate of 386 shots which hit their marks 113 times in 2002.
Also in 2002, police increased their accuracy in shootouts to 18 percent...

If their accuracy increased to 29%, but it was only 18% in shootouts, what were they shooting at to get 29%. Are they only hitting paper targets 29% of the time and it then degrades to 18% when they're in a shootout? Or is this referring to when the police (NYCPD in particular) shoot an unarmed man 47 times. That probably wouldn't count as a shootout even though they hit their target.