Against the background of the widow of the man shot by the police, who now sharply criticizes the actions of the officers, the ‘Krone’ explains how firearms are used by the police and what is learned during the training.
Police operations such as the one on Friday in Bad Sauerbrunn in Burgenland, in which a person who appeared to have psychiatric problems was shot, are rare in Austria. But: In self-defense situations, especially when a police officer is attacked at close range with a knife or machete, the emphasis of the training is on “reaching for the firearm,” Chief Inspector Markus Tantinger, from the training center in the Ministry of the Interior, says .
A shot in the knee does not stop an attacker
During shooting training, police officers must aim their weapons at targets in the upper body – they represent potential attackers. This practice-oriented orientation has two decisive advantages: it not only increases the number of hits by the emergency services – due to the larger area – but is also intended to immediately defuse the threatening situation in the event of an emergency. A targeted shot – for example in the knee or the use of pepper spray – is no longer possible from this distance.
Moreover, the attacker could not be stopped in a second by a shot to the knee, if he was hit at all. We know from experience that people in exceptional psychological situations or under the influence of drugs often do not respond to pepper spray.
“The use of the service weapon is unavoidable here. This is how it is taught all over the world,” Tantinger said. However, the use of the service weapon is usually the police officer’s last option during operations.
The police must above all de-escalate
In principle, officers are trained to have a de-escalating effect in dangerous situations. Interactive scenario training is also used in which police officers specifically learn to remain calm in stressful situations and the use of weapons is also practiced here. “Experiences with difficult official actions from the past are also incorporated into this scenario training,” according to the Ministry of the Interior. The majority of firearm uses are for blank shots and warning shots, as well as shots against things like car tires.
In the event of an attack with a weapon, it is not the job of the police to decide whether the suspect has psychiatric problems or not. “They are not medically trained to do this,” the Home Office said. Moreover, a corresponding diagnosis can only be made “when the situation has calmed down again”.
Source: Krone
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