Police arms are the most powerful and lethal approach used by the police to smooth away dangers while they perform their duty. In case of any carelessness, people’s rights are very likely to be violated. Therefore, the use of police arms is a last resort, and can only be adopted when there is no other choice. However, in the face of sudden incidents, there is no much time to consider and judge when to shoot. Therefore, it is inevitable to have errors or unexpected incidents happen, and all walks of life may have doubts about the police concerning the human resource, quality, daily training, and crisis management capability. Against the backdrop, it is a challenge for the police to achieve a balance between their own safety and people’s rights and interests.
The purpose of this study was to make an in-depth discussion on factors concerned before shooting a gun, circumstance selection for shooting a gun, evaluation & judgment of shooting a gun, relationship between social support and gun-shooting behavior, cognitive behavior for laws and educational training, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after shooting a gun, when the police are faced with different emergencies, in order to offer future reference to the government to improve the gun-shooting environment and stipulate relevant policies for the police. Also, with the help of literature review, this study adopts contextual analysis, semi-structured in-depth interviews, and questionnaires to research into issues in question.
According to the findings, policemen aged 31~40 years with an seniority of 11~20 years have more gun-shooting than other policemen who are younger and less-experienced with a shorter seniority. Regarding daily police duties, policemen are more likely to shoot a gun in order to respond to emergencies, suppress outlaws, or insure the safety and properties of themselves and others, while they are performing offensive duties, such as patrol missions, projects, and actions on information. Besides, the cognitive schema of using firearms is the most likely to be triggered when rank-and-file policemen try to apprehend outlaws and are shot or crashed, offenders escorted or apprehended by policemen succeed in escaping, or policemen investigate a crime, or are attached by outlaws with knives, guns or other instruments. Both the capability and accuracy of rank-and-file policemen’s shooting have already been improved; however, they seldom shelter themselves or call for backup, and therefore should learn more about risk perception. In particular, the principle for rank-and-file policemen to shoot a gun is that they should shoot a gun as long as the safety of themselves or others is in danger when they are performing their duties in accordance with the law, but under the prerequisite of low risk and no harm to other’s lives. If the other party carries no lethal weapons or have no offensive actions, policemen are able to ponder deeply on suppression by superior police forces, and will not shoot a gun unthinkingly when “there is no need to shoot.” In addition, the circumstance of the safety of policemen or others being in danger is a top priority for policemen to shoot. Most importantly, the interval between the first shot and the second one measures 1~5 seconds, with an intention to complete the mission, and at the same time do no harm to the other party. In other words, policemen already take into account the necessity of shooting a gun. The reason in common why policemen have the third shot is that it is a necessary approach to protect themselves and control the situation when their lives are in danger, and it is an emergency.
What should not be ignored is psychological pressure or negative effects to both physical and mental health after policemen shoot a gun, resulting from injuries to themselves, injuries to or death of their colleagues or the public, criminal judgments which fall short of their expectations, etc. Most policemen don’t proactively seek for help: some overcome difficulties on their own; some relieve themselves as time goes by; and others seek for religious support for mental tranquility. Moreover, policemen who were once shot also prove to have mental impairment. In addition, rank-and-file policemen realize that the Statute Governing Use of Arms by the Police doesn’t clearly define when to shoot a gun, and therefore have difficulty in making a decision. Partial adjustments should also be made to the annual subject and field training. Especially, rank-and-file policemen believe that they need the training in situational simulation, assault & joint apprehension, quick targeting & shooting, shooting in driving, and night shooting. According to this study, there is a significant correlation among rank-and-file policemen’s social-demographic variables, character & emotion, social support, PTSD, efficiency of gun-shooting, and behavioral perception of gun-shooting on duty. Moreover, these variables, including rank-and-file policemen’s character & emotion, efficiency of gun-shooting, social support, and PTSD, should influence one another.
Based on the above-mentioned findings, this study suggests first setting up gun-shooting identification criteria and establishing the Gun-Shooting Incident Review Committee (to settle gun-shooting controversies) & a response team (to cope with problems subsequent to gun-shooting incidents). Secondly, adjustments should be made to the existing annual training courses, in order to cater for rank-and-file policemen; a psychological consultation mechanism should be established to offer timely mental services to policemen right after a gun-shooting incident; and policemen should be equipped with expertise and skills, and offered with diverse support-seeking channels. Finally, the pre-duty education has to keep reminding policemen of gun-shooting criteria, and gun-shooting regulation should also be set up to comply with the national context in Taiwan.