officer-involved shooting
Appearance
English
[edit]Noun
[edit]officer-involved shooting (plural officer-involved shootings)
- (US, euphemistic) An incident in which a police officer shoots at another person.
- Synonym: OIS (abbreviation)
Usage notes
[edit]- Originally used by police departments and adopted by journalists, the term has been criticized as an intentionally misleading euphemism that obscures police agency.[1][2] It is exclusively used to refer to shootings committed by police, not shootings committed by other people where police are present. Beyond that no standard definition exists,[3] and usage differs regarding whether the shooting must be intentional, whether the person must be hit, and whether the officer must be on duty at the time. For example:
police definitions
- San Francisco Police Department:
- An officer's discharge of a firearm that results in the physical injury or death of a person, even if it is an accidental discharge.[4]
- Anchorage Police Department:
- An incident in which a sworn employee of the Anchorage Police Department purposefully discharged a firearm at a human being.[5]
- Austin Police Department:
- An incident in which an officer fired his/her firearm intentionally at a subject;
- an incident in which an officer fired his/her firearm unintentionally and struck a subject;
- or an incident in which an officer used a less-lethal firearm, struck the subject, and contributed to the subject’s death.[6]
- International Association of Chiefs of Police:
- A discharge of a service weapon by an officer during a hostile encounter or an accidental discharge, while on-duty or off-duty, irrespective of injuries to suspects, officers, or third parties.[7]
References
[edit]- ^ Pareene, Alex (2015). The Dish. Stop Saying “Officer-Involved Shootings”
- ^ Lennard, Natasha (2014). Vice. Some NYPD Officer-Involved Shooting Narratives Just Don't Fly
- ^ Public Safety Open Data Portal. Officer Involved Shootings
- ^ San Francisco Police Department (2005). Investigation of Officer Involved Shootings and Discharges
- ^ Anchorage Police Department (2013). Officer-Involved Shootings in Anchorage 1993 – 2013
- ^ Austin Police Department (2015). Officer-Involved Shootings: 2000-2014)
- ^ Public Safety Open Data Portal. Officer Involved Shootings