Armed Child Target Used For Training Police Officers

[Zylos]

What if I told you police in your town could desensitize themselves to the idea of shooting a (armed) child, pregnant woman, or young mother, for just a couple of bucks? The "No More Hesitation" series from Law Enforcement Targets Inc. offers exactly that. For less than 99 cents per target, police can shoot at real-life images "designed to give officers the experience of dealing with deadly force shooting scenarios with subjects that are not the norm during training."

Update: The marketing team at Law Enforcement Targets, Inc. sends along this helpful explanation for the "No More Hesitation" series:

    "The subjects in NMH targets were chosen in order to give officers the experience of dealing with deadly force shooting scenarios with subjects that are not the norm during training. I found while speaking with officers and trainers in the law enforcement community that there is a hesitation on the part of cops when deadly force is required on subjects with atypical age, frailty or condition (one officer explaining that he enlarged photos of his own kids to use as targets so that he would not be caught off guard with such a drastically new experience while on duty). This hesitation time may be only seconds but that is not acceptable when officers are losing their lives in these same situations. The goal of NMH is to break that stereotype on the range, regardless of how slim the chances are of encountering a real life scenario that involves a child, pregnant woman, etc. If that initial hesitation time can be cut down due to range experience, the officer and community are better served."





The series contains seven targets in all, titled Pregnant Woman, Older Man 1, Older Man 2, Older Woman, Young Mother, Young Girl, and Little Brother. Each of the depicted subjects is armed.

I've reached out to Minnesota-based Law Enforcement Targets, Inc., for comment on what inspired the series and whether it's popular with law enforcement groups (see comment added above). Considering that the company has landed $5.5 million worth of contracts with the federal government, it might also be interesting to know if these targets are being used by federal law enforcement agents.   

Source: http://reason.com/blog/2013/02/19/is-your-local-police-department-using-pi


Irock linked this on the IRC. That's just... *shivers*

[EvilM00s]

No.

[Holkeye]

NO MORE HESITATION - ADORABLE DOG ON COUCH WITH GUN



Non-traditional threat depicting a dog holding a gun. Designed to prepare officers for the worst possible situation.

[strike]

officer dies because a pregnant lady shot him, woo fuck the police.

[CartoonFan]

I can understand what they're trying to do. They're concerned that a cop might not have the capacity to kill someone who poses an immediate threat if that someone is a particular kind of person. But how often do you read about cops getting shot because they didn't have the capacity to shoot? The only time I really remember that happening was in RoboCop 2. This isn't a problem cops seem to have in real life. They're already too quick to fire at people, like those women who were sitting in a car that happened to look like a car Dorner had. Police it seems are getting too trigger-happy. Let us remember that most cops in England don't even have guns. Perhaps that's not a realistic comparison. There's probably a lot more crime in America, so I can see the point to it. But still, they need to be responsible with that kind of power.

Besides, cops have tasers. They should resort to incapacitation if they can. I believe any death is sad, so they shouldn't be looking for reasons to shoot, they should be looking for reasons not to.

[haloOfTheSun]

There's probably a lot more crime in America, so I can see the point to it.

Actually, it's the opposite. The US has a much higher population, so that can give off the impression that there is "more" crime, but crime rates in the UK are some of the highest in the world.

I agree with the rest of your post, though.

[CartoonFan]

There's probably a lot more crime in America, so I can see the point to it.

Actually, it's the opposite. The US has a much higher population, so that can give off the impression that there is "more" crime, but crime rates in the UK are some of the highest in the world.

I agree with the rest of your post, though.

You don't say? Jeez, and here I thought...

Well, surely the gun crime rates are higher in the US?

[Fall From Eden]

I believe any death is sad, so they shouldn't be looking for reasons to shoot, they should be looking for reasons not to.

This is something that I absolutely agree with.

Also, the violent crime rate in America has actually been steadily decreasing over time, not increasing. Lately, this has been true of every class of crime in America, actually -- crime is going down, but reports of violent crime in the news media have steadily climbed to keep the ratings up for news programs on television.

By the way, I also see why they are making these training targets, and it actually does make a lot of sense for those rare situations that a law enforcement officer may find themselves in, but I question whether or not this is a good thing. It seems to me that it just desensitizes an already jaded police force who happen to carry deadly weapons with them at all times, and... that just doesn't sit well with me.

[haloOfTheSun]

There's probably a lot more crime in America, so I can see the point to it.

Actually, it's the opposite. The US has a much higher population, so that can give off the impression that there is "more" crime, but crime rates in the UK are some of the highest in the world.

I agree with the rest of your post, though.

You don't say? Jeez, and here I thought...

Well, surely the gun crime rates are higher in the US?

Yes. Significantly, of course.

[EvilM00s]

This is true, there is significantly more gun crime in the US per capita compared to AUS, the UK or Canada. But the demographics for those crimes don't normally run toward pregnant young women or angry small children. Maybe in like, Chad or something, but not here.

I dunno. It just seems that this program is designed to train cops to shoot instead of de-fuse the situation by any other means. Ooh, preggo has a gun. BLAMM. Oooh, Junior has a gun. BLAMM. ooh, BLAMMM. Whats the next step? Hypnotherapy to totally remove remorse?

[haloOfTheSun]

The next step is robots as law enforcement, obviously.

[CartoonFan]

The next step is robots as law enforcement, obviously.

Could be a good thing. Robots don't even need to worry about their own livelihood, and you can't bribe a machine. But I guess it all depends on who writes the program.

One thing I think needs to be asked though: What parents would allow their kid to pose for somebody's target?

[Fall From Eden]

The next step is robots as law enforcement, obviously.

[yt]Q4irHW-FY-0[/yt]

Edit: On-topic, there is actually some government research going towards creating robots for use in certain military and police activities, but that really shouldn't come as a huge shock to anyone at this point.

[Grafikal]

I laughed out loud when I scrolled down and saw that prego girl with a gun.

[Holkeye]

Finally, my image worked. Jeez, that was a fiasco.

[firerain]

I don't really see a problem with this. It's just training under different plausible scenarios. Also, M00s, I'm pretty sure they still train for other methods of situation resolution. (Although the way that they've done it in is incredibly shit.)

Also, the source is a pile of shit. Never link to a blog as a source again. Instead of making an actual report about it they just turned it into one big opinion piece.

[strike]

that piece has more spin than when goose died in top gun

[Wiimeiser]

But would you shoot these?

Rabbit with gun
Oni with gun
Wolf Tengu with gun
(All are Danbooru links so NSFW)

[Acolyte]

Yes, repeatedly.

[yuyu!]

Powertrip for a second. I have no regrets.

(Also, I'm not entirely sure that you're allowed to post links to NSFW sites outside of the sewers, but I could be mistaken.)

[Malson]

NO MORE HESITATION - ADORABLE DOG ON COUCH WITH GUN



Non-traditional threat depicting a dog holding a gun. Designed to prepare officers for the worst possible situation.

I'll have too much trouble firing at this target, because the background isn't faded further highligting and highlighting the threat.