Firearms proficiency is an implicit expectation, held by the public of police officers, due to presumption that the required firearm training is an adequate preparation for deadly force encounter. However, anecdotal evidence and available data on police shootings suggest that conventional, unrealistic training methods are wholly inadequate. To present stress into firearms training, departments have opted for exercises such as physical exertion and shoot-house training as a substitute for realistic simulation of force-on-force confrontations. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects which differing stressors, associated with common exercises for handgun training of law enforcement officers, have on performance and heart rate.
Method:
The study consisted of a single group, with-in design of four exercises. Participants were tested in groups for static shooting, shooting with running, and simulated combat; shoot-house exercises were performed individually. Average participant age was 44.6 years (SD 5.85) and amount of experience as a police officer was 16.5 years (SD 8.3).
Analysis/Results:
Firearms exercises yielded a significant effect on performance p<.0001 when tested using a repeated measures ANOVA performed on hit rate percentages. Post hoc testing indicated that Simulation hit rate (M=15.69%) and Shoot-house hit rate (M=53.67%) exercises were significantly different from all other drills. Static shooting hit rate (M=97.12%) and Run-shoot hit rate (M=93.37%) drills were significantly different from the Simulation and Shoot-house drills, but were not significantly different from each other. Firearms exercises also resulted in a significant effect on heart rates p = .0008 which were also tested using an ANOVA for correlated samples. Post hoc testing indicated significant differences in only two comparisons: Static shooting (M=118 heart rate) and Shoot-house exercises (M=145.28 heart rate) and Static shooting and Simulation (M=159.8 heart rate). The Run-shoot exercise (M=139.4 heart rate) was not significantly different from any other exercise. Finally, a Pearson’s r correlation, performed on hit rate percentages and heart rate data, resulted in a significant negative correlation r(28) = .4935, p = .0056.
Conclusions:
Significant differences were found between exercises in both performance and heart rate, showing that training which is more similar to actual force-on-force situations resulted in decreased performance and increased heart rate levels. Based on these findings, it can be determined that there are differences between less-realistic firearms exercises, with some stress introduced, and exercises that attempt to simulate combat situations. Departments should include real life training to increase hit rate accuracy during stressful situations.
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