Officer- Involved Shooting

 Course Description and Agenda (Click Here)

Please be aware that this class is a 20-hour training. Therefore, the first two days of training will be 8am-5pm local time. The last day will be 8am-12pm local time.

Training Goals and Objectives:

There is arguably no single event that can traumatize a police agency more than a police officer involved shooting incident. The criticism and intense scrutiny generated by the media, community activists, the general public, and the criminal justice system itself, can be enormous. Civil judgments resulting from such cases can debilitate a police organization for years, have an adverse effect on employee morale, and hamper agency effectiveness through the erosion of public opinion. It is, therefore, imperative that every police department prepare in earnest for this inevitable eventuality. It is also essential that the investigator charged with the task of leading a police officer involved investigation become as equally prepared.

The purpose of this course is to provide attendees with a basic investigative model that is applicable to all officer involved shootings incidents, regardless of the size of their department. Police officer involved shootings are vastly different from any other type of investigation. The stakes for the shooting officer and his department are so high that it is imperative that the investigation be conducted in a prescribed manner. This course will provide those in attendance with the knowledge, skills and confidence necessary to handle any deadly force incident.

Training Audience, Format and Content

This course is intended for those investigators who are specifically assigned to the criminal investigation of officer involved shootings and in-custody deaths. It is also appropriate for those detectives or uniform personnel who may be required to assist in these types of investigations. Crime scene technicians, medical examiner/coroner investigators, supervisors, military investigators, criminal analysts, and prosecuting attorney's would also benefit from the training.

Instruction is provided through the use of a PowerPoint presentation that makes liberal use of authentic crime scene photographs. This insures that the topics discussed are portrayed as realistically as possible. Numerous hand-outs and video tapes are used as instructional aids. There are no pre-requisites to this course.

Students should be forewarned that the content of this course contains numerous death scene photographs that are highly graphic and intense. Due to the sensitive nature of this material, attendance is restricted to sworn law enforcement personnel, or those directly involved in the criminal justice system.