By Sofia Santana
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
BROWARD COUNTY, Fla. — On a stakeout, a team of detectives watches a suspect’s vehicle pull up.
The detectives surround the car.
“Stop!” one yells. “Get out of the car!” another shouts.
The suspect responds by hitting the gas.
Broward Sheriff’s Office reports outline that scenario from early September in Oakland Park, where detectives were faced with the split-second decision: Do you shoot or try to jump out of the way?
In this case and a few others, law enforcement officers have opted to open fire, adding to a recent spike in police-involved shootings.
Three of the 11 police-involved shootings so far this year have involved suspects shot in their vehicles. Overall in 2008, police bullets from several different agencies have killed eight people in Broward and left six others injured. In some of the incidents, more than one officer or deputy opened fire, and more than one suspect was wounded.
In several additional incidents, officers fired on moving vehicles but missed.
The casualties in the police-involved shootings this year already equal the record numbers logged for all of 2007, when eight people were killed and six injured by police gunfire.
It’s not just here that police have been shooting more often; metropolitan areas such as Washington, D.C., Chicago and Miami-Dade County are experiencing a similar trend.
Criminologists and other experts in the field of police work have identified a number of factors that may be involved. Chief among them is the increased violence directed at the men and women of law enforcement, who, in turn, must use violence more often to defend themselves, said psychologist Laurence Miller, who works in Boca Raton. He counsels and trains area police, and urges officers to wear their body armor at all times on duty, even if it’s uncomfortable.
“It’s hot here in South Florida, but it’s cool in a coffin,” Miller said.
In the three Broward cases this year involving moving vehicles, sheriff’s deputies told their superiors they opened fire because they believed they were in danger of being run over. Broward Sheriff Al Lamberti called the deputies’ actions “totally justified.”
Still, some law enforcement specialists say it would be better if deputies and officers were trained to avoid standing in front of or behind suspects’ vehicles.
“A bullet will not stop a car, and it does not ensure the driver will stop,” said behavioral scientist Thomas Streed. A former homicide detective with the San Diego County, Calif., Sheriff’s Department, Streed consults for police agencies, often on officer-involved shootings.
Streed said sometimes it is impossible to corroborate police assertions that a suspect tried to run them over.
“It’s a simple allegation to make,” Streed said. On the other hand, he also points out that shooting incidents can be extremely traumatic for the officers involved. “Some will act with a lot of bravado right after and then when no one’s looking go vomit in a toilet,” he said.
Many major U.S. police agencies, including the Broward Sheriff’s Office, instruct officers to refrain from shooting at a moving vehicle unless it poses “an imminent threat of death or bodily harm.”
But such guidelines are too general, and the definition of what constitutes an “imminent threat” too ambiguous, said Geoffrey Alpert, a criminal justice professor at the University of South Carolina who studies police use of force issues.
“Research has shown, at least anecdotally, that most of these people were trying to escape and not trying to run down an officer,” Alpert said.
He favors policies that clearly prohibit officers from firing into moving vehicles.
The New York City Police Department adopted such a rule last year, leaving only very slim exceptions. Miami-Dade and Miami police have similar stringent guidelines, Alpert said.
The Broward Sheriff’s Office, the largest policing agency in Broward and involved in six shootings this year — including the three cases involving moving vehicles — routinely reviews its policies and considers revisions, Lamberti said
But with violent crime edging up in recent years in many parts of the country, tighter rules are not the widely accepted solution. Instead, local agencies are opting for more firepower, buying assault rifles and modern handguns that police officials say help even the playing field with violent offenders.
No one really knows if that is playing a role in the rise in police-involved shootings.
“Today, most criminals are a lot more brazen,” Miller said. “It’s almost a matter of pride to shoot an officer or attempt to shoot an officer.”
Copyright 2008 South Florida Sun-Sentinel