An Officer’s Split-Second Decision to Use Deadly Force

There are two things that make police officers different from civilians. First, officers know when they go to work that they may not come home -- they could be killed in the line of duty. Second, all officers know they may have to kill another human being, also in the line of duty.

Thirty years ago, when I joined the Los Angeles Police Department, the use-of-force policy on shooting at moving vehicles was “generally shooting at moving vehicles is prohibited.” The reason for the qualification (generally) is because when an officer believes his or her life or the life of an innocent person is in immediate danger, the law permits the officer to use deadly force -- regardless of policy.

Also 30 years ago, LAPD Officer Vincent Leusch was killed during a pursuit of two gang members. During the pursuit, other officers repeatedly fired on the suspects with shotguns, desperately trying to stop them as they careened out of control on the streets of South Los Angeles and Inglewood, endangering innocent people in their cars and on the street.

The officers knew that if they didn’t stop these crazed gangsters, someone was going to be killed.

Leusch pulled his patrol car to a stop as the suspects approached him. Leusch aimed his shotgun at the suspects but they didn’t stop, and the driver rammed the police car. The force of the impact threw Leusch 40 feet. He lost his leg, was paralyzed from the neck down and died 10 days later.

As I recall now, Leusch didn’t fire at the suspects. He knew the policy.

Maybe he hesitated, not wanting to violate the LAPD policy. Maybe that hesitation cost him his life.

When an officer makes the decision to use deadly force, it is an intensely personal one that is made in seconds. All the officers have is the threat and their training and experience.

In hindsight, especially under the glare of intense press reports, shining through the prism of politics and community outrage, these split-second decisions are dissected in minute detail, not only by the LAPD but also the district attorney and, all too often, the FBI.

To be sure, there have been cases when officers had no justification for shooting a suspect. When this comes to light, the officers are not only fired, they are prosecuted. In the hundreds of LAPD shootings in the last 30 years that have been investigated by a sometimes not-so-friendly district attorney and the FBI, how many were shown to be criminal? Yes, there were a few, but they were the exception, not the rule.

The new policy adopted by the L.A. Police Commission on Wednesday is more about the campaign for mayor than it is about making sure LAPD officers aren’t becoming trigger-happy. After all, the core of the new policy is the same as the old policy: Shooting at moving vehicles is prohibited.

At least Mayor Jim Hahn got some media attention; so-called community activists can claim a victory. But the reality is that Officer Leusch is dead and nothing is going to change that -- including some minor language changes to the LAPD use-of-force policy.