Wait for backup or not? How police officers view their role when responding to an active shooter event

Abstract

Objectives

Test whether current law enforcement officers believe that they should immediately enter an active shooter scene before waiting on additional officers.

Methods

Quasi-experimental vignette design with random assignment to 10 vignettes from a universe of 324. The sample consisted of 796 current law enforcement officers from 43 states, which responded to a total of 7394 vignettes. This report utilized a mixed effects logistic model to assess the appropriateness of the hypothetical officer’s actions in responding to an active shooter event.

Results

Respondents were between 14 and 80 times more likely to agree with the hypothetical officer’s decision to immediately enter an active shooter scene when a driving force was present (i.e., ongoing gunfire or injured victims). This agreement varied across models as we explore different interaction effects.

Conclusions

Law enforcement agree with the public sentiment that officers should immediately enter active shooter locations if there is an ongoing threat.