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    | Younger Police Officers Are More Likely To Shoot People Than Older Ones Submitted by: 
			
Mark A. Taff
 Website: http://www.marktaff.com
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			There 
				is 1 comment 
			 	on this storyPost Comments | Read Comments
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    | The age of an officer is perhaps the least-discussed factor in a fatal encounter with police, and the maturity of an officer rarely comes up in news conferences after an incident. Age wasn’t mentioned in the Justice Department’s deep, 86-page analysis of Brown’s fatal shooting released last week.
 
 Yet research shows that younger officers are more likely to be involved in shootings, and that the risk of shootings declines as officers age. That may be because younger officers are more likely to be working on the street than behind a desk, according to researchers, but it could also be that younger officers are predisposed to react with deadly force.
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    | Comment by: 
     Millwright66
     (3/12/2015) |  
    | It would have far more informative if the author had included statistical documentation of her premise.  Lacking that, hers is just another WAG. 
 While I would hesitate to equate age with "maturity" I suspect there's a small nugget here.  Older officers - I suspect - are more cautious and situationally aware than their younger cohorts due to their years'  experience.
 
 LEO training has long been a serious problem.  Too much time is devoted to "pencil problems" and far too little - if any - to active conflict resolution and combat scenarios.  Suspect because its expensive - both materials, man hours and risk.  No one knows how they will react in a high-stress situation.  Discovery and training, remediation takes time.
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