Read the responses to this thread, got angry, got over it, and decided to speak up. I'm glad my law enforcement years weren't in New York since the more people you have in a given area.... the more trouble, period. I've been in more than my share of violent incidents down here in south Florida, made it through them and have been "retired" now for more than 15 years (and in another line of work entirely - "retirement" isn't good for you...).
Now for a bit of reality.... nothing you see on television or the movies will ever prepare you for what happens on the street where you never know the whole story and can be confronted with a life or death, shoot-don't shoot situation when you least expect it or are prepared for it. My mantra whenever going to that kind of situation was "look out for the cops" and I meant it in every sense of the words, driving, running, climbing, etc. Every department trains to prevent fratricide (shooting at the good guys.... or being shot at by the good guys). In recent years the military has found that as they're better able to tell where the rounds came from and I.D. the munitions themselves pretty accurately that they're own fratricide rates are a lot higher than you'd guess. In short when you're scared to death, and at an extreme level of adrenaline, acting in a safe and prudent manner is much more difficult (and it isn't some game where you can re-set and try it again...).
For that reason sharp, well trained outfits have policies in place to reduce the chances of one cop shooting at another... In my outfit's case we actually required plainclothes types to put on a lightweight windbreaker with large "POLICE" markings if they were going to help out on an active weapons scene. As a watch commander I ordered plainclothes guys out of an area where we had an active shooter on more than one occasion. Even so you can still have "circular firing" or cross-fire incidents where one or more of the good guys wind up in the E.R. with wounds received that were intended for the same guy they were shooting at... Things become much, much more complicated when you have multiple agencies and jursidictions on the same scene. In those situations the chances of something very bad happening go way, way up. Yes, in my early years (hired at the end of 1973) I participated in chase scenes that looked like something from that movie the "Blues Brothers". And yes, I've been in situations where fire discipline, and every other basic procedure just went out the window and you ended up making your own decisions (for better or worse).
Down here in Florida we've had a history of bad guys trying to impersonate officers (particularly when robbing dopers) so a police uniform (or what passes for one on a drug raid) is no guarantee that you're actually seeing a real cop (and my own SRT did shoot several of these kind of guys and they were wearing armor, and police T-shirts, and had badges...).
Now for the portion of the previous replies that did get me fired up. The consequences for any officer that's involved in a shooting that is even the slightest bit controversial are very, very serious. Before any decision is made about whether the incident is going to prosecuted, the Department begins it's initial investigation of any shooting incident. Once the basics are determined (and before the officer involved is asked for a statement) a state attorney is briefed and that individual (after talking to their brass) will decide if this is possibly going to be prosecuted... If the State Attorney's office takes over all Department actions cease (for the time being) and the officer is read his rights and things move forward. In many cases this means that the SA after a thorough investigation goes to the Grand Jury with the case. That body will indict or "no bill" the incident. With an indictment the officer is treated like any other defendant by the system but everything surrounding it turns into a circus.... If there's no indictment the matter returns to the agency and then it's just an administrative matter. That means that the only thing on the line for the officer is his/her job (but with very serious consequences still to come). If any rules, regulations, policies were broken then discipline will result - all the way up to firing - but with one added feature. Now for the fun part, at that point the officer is ordered to give a full account of the incident. That statement will become a permanent part of the file and will be the basis of any interrogation by Internal Affairs if necessary (and I actually did that job for three years...). If the outfit determines that what happened violated basic procedures they can use that to decline to defend the officer in any subsequent civil case..... and that means real trouble for whoever is involved... In most cases the City will have to defend the officer since it's their money at stake (and that leads to all sorts of complcations and conflicts of interest...).
"No consequences for the officer" ? What a load of bad information. Yes, there are miscarriages of justice and yes there are incidents that cry out for change but the consequences for any officer involved in a shooting are as heavy as they get, the process from start to finish takes months (at times years) and can be very, very damaging to anyone involved. Police outfits do their best to find good people for the job, then the job and the world you operate in does its best to grind them down to the point of indifference (at best). Very, very few cops come through a shooting situation without serious psych problems afterwards. I was one of them, but was lucky enough to sort it all out in just a few years...
