In 1977 Doug Smith and I got our hands on the FBI Officer Killed Report, an example is here: https://ucr.fbi.gov/leoka/2014. We used the report to study the patterns of encounter between police and suspects to determine if the tactics used by the police were adequate to meet the threat. WE decided that they were not. We brought our thoughts to our tactical mentor Tom Foose the SWAT NCO/IC of San Antonio Police Department. He encouraged us and agreed to join us in our foray against the various windmills of misfortune encountered by Texas law enforcement.

We did something that had never been done before, at least that anybody in law enforcement admitted to, we examined the actions of the victim officers. Up until this time, law enforcement gave their dead one hell of a funeral, occasionally generated a policy document (See Joseph Wambaugh’s, “The Onion Field”), but offered no practical alternatives. It was considered bad form to inquire too closely as to the need for the funeral.

In our youth and arrogance we thought we could do better. We put together what we called “Officer Survival” a three day course designed to change officer’s perceptions and tactical approach to dangerous situations. Over a ten year period we trained 1000s of Texas, out of state, military and international police officers. We were never assigned a full time training role, this was in addition to our normal assignments.

Once again I have given you more information than you need. I have embarked on the history of the suit and how to make one when what I wanted to do is tell you, your fly is down.

In analyzing fatal law enforcement encounters it was necessary to a have consistently defined circumstances. Even so there is still room for debate or slop over from one category to another. The error can be compounded when a false assertion is carried forward as true.

Which brings me and you to the point I wanted to discuss in the first place. Last week, a rookie Pennsylvania State Trooper, Landon Weaver, was killed when he responded to a domestic disturbance call in a rural area. Fox news reports: Deadly-calls-domestic-disputes-among-most-dangerous-assignments-for-police. Except they are not.

I have examined almost all of the FBI Officer Killed Reports since 1977. The FBI has consistently broken “disturbances” into two categories, domestic and other. Other, could be a bar fight, a dispute over a parking space, or a payment dispute between a hooker and her john. Chances are if a dispatcher doesn’t know how to categorize a call he/she will default to “unknown disturbance” when the call is put out.

When “domestic disturbance” and “disturbance other” are broken out, then domestic disturbance drops down the list significantly. What difference does it make? Here is a scenario, you tell me:

A male and female are walking down a sidewalk at 11:30 pm on Friday night. She is alternately crying and berating him for a real or imagined slight.

Officers respond and :

1. Determine that the two are cohabitating, both have been drinking and they are a block from home. Both calm down with the intervention of the officers and agree to go straight home.
2. As the officers walk up on the pair, each pulls out a pistol and begins blazing away at the officers. None of the principles survive the encounter.
3. As the officers walk up on the pair, a third party in an alley steps out with a sawed off shotgun and begins firing at the officers. The couple produce pistols and add to the barrage and both officers are killed. The shooters all make their escape.

The first thing that is obvious is one scenario three possible outcomes (at least that is what I allowed). The officers have to make contact and make contact based on the information they have available to them, right then. So what do we have: a domestic disturbance in the first instance. The relationship of the couple to one another rather than the geography is the determining factor.

In the second instance is this a domestic disturbance, is there some other factor that takes it out  of the realm of a domestic disturbance? Investigation could move this into a poorly conceived ambush or officers killed while investigating a felony (dope deal, kidnapping). These are two other reporting categories for officers killed.

The third instance was never about a disturbance, the third shooter concealed  at a prearranged location says that this was an ambush. One scenario that demands different approaches and even then the odds that both officers get to home that night are slim.

So there it is my pet peeve, another indication that the press is not a good source for information. For over forty years the FBI has been putting out a report that distinctly separates domestic disturbances and other kinds of disturbances.  It’s there in black and white, the FBI provides a nifty chart. The press still can’t or won’t get it right. Google “domestic disturbances most deadly for police” and you will get 274,000 hits. I would take this to mean they get it wrong more often that they get it right. The information is there for all to see, yet they persist in getting it wrong.

Need toilet paper, get a newspaper for a good deal. Need accurate news? You are pretty much screwed.