Deadly Force Encounters, Second Edition: Cops and Citizens Defending Themselves and Others

In 1997, renown police psychologist Dr. Alexis Artwohl and police officer Loren W. Christensen (co-author of On Combat) wrote Deadly Force Encounters: What Cops Need to Know to Mentally and Physically Prepare for and Survive a Gunfight. It quickly became an authoritative book for police officers, citizens legally carrying a concealed firearm, and police academies.

The greatly expanded scientific research, stories, and analysis in this second edition, Deadly Force Encounters: Cops and Citizens Defending Themselves and Others, focus on the most infrequent but most challenging part of the police profession: the use of deadly force. This book is not about specific laws, tactics, or equipment, but how the science of human performance influences the people behind the badge. This knowledge is crucial for physical, legal, and emotional survival.

Citizens, armed or not, will benefit from the information to help them survive violent threats. "When seconds count, the police are only minutes away." If citizens use deadly force to survive, this book will help them prepare for the legal and emotional challenges of the aftermath.

Although the focus is about savings lives when threatened with violence, much of the information is relevant to people facing a wide variety of extreme events and everyday dangers.

All readers who want facts about violent encounters rather than myth and ill-informed hyperbole will find this book a useful reference.

Foreward by Laurence Miller, Ph.D., clinical, forensic, and police psychologist, and author of the upcoming book: The Psychology of Police Deadly Force Encounters: Science, Practice, and Policy (Charles C. Thomas, 2020): "Already a classic, the second edition of Deadly Force Encounters expands and deepens the empirical, theoretical, and practical knowledge base of police deadly force encounters for the challenges of the 21st century. Written by co-authors who skillfully combine in-depth scholarship with on-the-street experience, this is an authoritative guide that every law enforcement supervisor, policymaker, and rank and file cop should be familiar with and have on hand for day-to-day guidance. You won't just read this book; you'll deploy it as a vital work tool to make you safer, smarter, and more resilient in the complex and sometimes contentious climate of modern policing. In a field often plagued with subjective impressions, anecdotal mythology, and political agendas, this volume stands out as a science-based, practical guide to understanding, preparing for, enduring, and recovering from a law enforcement deadly force encounter with your safety and sanity intact."

Introduction
Chapter 1: Shootout with the Devil
Chapter 2: The Survival Triangle
Chapter 3: Community Policing
Chapter 4: Human Performance Factors
Chapter 5: Mindset
Chapter 6: Fear
Chapter 7: Responses to Handgun Wounds are Unpredictable
Chapter 8: Citizens: Force Multipliers
Chapter 9: Attention, Perception, and Memory
Chapter 10: Decision making
Chapter 11: The Survival Bias in Decision making
Chapter 12: Training
Chapter 13: Legal Survival
Chapter 14: Investigations and the Courtroom
Chapter 15: Short-term Reactions to a Deadly Force Encounter
Chapter 16: Traumatic Stress Reactions
Chapter 17: Police Officer Job Stress
Chapter 18: Organizational Stress
Chapter 19: Resiliency
Chapter 20: Impact on Families
Bibliography
About the Authors