Aurora’s decision to allow police to shoot at a moving vehicle under limited circumstances may sound ominous, but it’s really not. That’s because the circumstances would be quite unusual — and even then would be subject to “strict scrutiny” afterward by the department.
As explained in a , Aurora police will be permitted to shoot at a moving vehicle only when a person inside “is immediately threatening another person with deadly force by means other than the vehicle.”
Needless to say, this is rare. And the exception is in line with the “guiding principles” of the Police Executive Research Forum, which has been pushing for years to ban shooting at vehicles as an inherently reckless response to a motorist in flight, even one heading toward the officers themselves. Police should get out of the way of a car, not shoot at it. Bullets endanger innocent bystanders as well as others in the vehicle, and the vehicle may veer off into nearby cars or pedestrians.
But even the Police Executive Research Forum includes an exception when someone in the vehicle is “using or threatening deadly force by means other than the vehicle itself.”
The default position for police everywhere should be to not shoot at a moving vehicle, even if a known criminal is at the wheel. It’s too dangerous. But that’s not to say a ban should be absolute.
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