A 'shoot to incapacitate' policy puts Georgia police chief and town in the spotlight

[Judi Lynn]

Chief Louis Dekmar had led the police department in LaGrange, Ga., since 1995. (Elijah Nouvelage for The Washington Post)
By Jamie Thompson
Yesterday at 10:00 a.m. EDT



LAGRANGE, Ga. — A fundamental tenet of police training in the United States is that officers who fire their weapons in response to a deadly threat should always aim for "center mass," generally the chest. That's the biggest target and so the easiest to hit. But a bullet that finds its mark there is likely to kill.

The police chief in this picturesque Deep South town says there’s a better approach. Louis Dekmar, who has run the LaGrange Police Department for 26 years, is training his officers to shoot for the legs, pelvis or abdomen in situations where they think it could stop a deadly threat without killing the source of that threat. Doing so, he believes, could make a difference in the more than 200 fatal police shootings nationwide every year that involve individuals armed with something other than a gun.

“Every time we avoid taking a life,” Dekmar says, “we maintain trust.”

The chief’s “Shoot to Incapacitate” program has drawn interest from academics who say it merits further study. In the national law enforcement community, however, it has elicited harsh, widespread criticism.

Other police leaders in Georgia found the idea so controversial that they made it a focus of their annual conference in August, flying in nine experts to discuss the pros and cons. One group’s executive director will soon release a position paper advising departments throughout the state not to follow Dekmar’s lead.

More:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/a-shoot-to-incapacitate-policy-puts-georgia-police-chief-and-town-in-the-spotlight/2021/10/24/d64b86f4-3378-11ec-9241-aad8e48f01ff_story.html

[duhneece]

1. My husband asks that question all the time

Why can’t law enforcement shoot at legs or pelvis.

[Progressive Jones]

2. Because that would be too hard for a poorly trained officer to do. nt

[RicROC]

4. and why does it take 6-8 bullets to be pumped into a victim?

Seems to me, if I was in that situation and not a professional cop, it would take me 6-8 shots to place one shot in the person. But a professional cop, one with training in the military, one or two shots should be sufficient to slow down someone. No use of firearms would be the goal.

[Best_man23]

3. There is the femoral artery that is in the leg

Which if a bullet hits the artery, the person shot will most likely bleed to death before any EMS can arrive. They will certainly bleed to death if cops follow their normal practice of handcuffing and rolling the person over after shooting them.

How about trying to train officers in deescalation tactics and procedures to interact with people rather than teaching them to act like an organized street gang or teaching them to "shoot to incapacitate"?

[spike jones]

5. Part of the problem may be that many on the police force are ex-military

and are trained there to shoot to kill.