21 Feet? More like 32.

Publication

Sandel, W.L., Martaindale, M.H., & Blair, J.P. (2020). A scientific examination of the 21-foot rule.  Police Practice and Research. DOI: 10.1080/15614263.2020.1772785.

What Was the Issue?

Since the 1980s, the 21-foot rule has dominated law enforcement training. This rule was originally developed by John Tueller who was a training Lieutenant in the Salt Lake City Police department. He observed that it took trainees about 1.5 seconds to draw and fire a holstered weapon. During that same time, the typical trainee could run about 21 feet. This has been interpreted by many agencies around the world as a safe distance. If you are 21 feet from a charging suspect, you a safe in that you will be able to draw and fire before a charging suspect reaches you. This issue had been explored in some professional publications, but nothing had been published in peer-reviewed journals. The authors sought to fix that gap and to evaluate the 21-foot rule in simulated encounters.

How Did They Look at It and What Did They Find?

The authors conducted a series of four studies. In the first, they tested the run speed of 76 college students. Consistent with Tueller’s observations, on average, it took the students 1.5 seconds to run 21 feet.

The second study examined the draw times of 152 police officers. Officers were told to draw and fire one marking round from a training pistol at a human silhouette as quickly as they could when a light activated. The average time for the officers to draw and fire was 1.80 seconds. There were several officers who had serious difficulty and took an extended amount of time to fire. To correct for this, the authors looked at the median time to fire (the median is the middle score when all the scores are lined-up from highest to lowest). The median time to draw and fire was 1.73 seconds. The draw and fire speeds ranged from 1.03 seconds to 3.40 seconds. Additionally, only 86% of the officers successfully hit the target.

In the third study, the authors had 57 officers draw and fire at suspect that was charging at them with a shock knife. The shock knife is a training tool that is shaped like a knife, but when a button is pressed, electricity arcs around the knife. This sounds like a taser in drive stun mode when activated. The video below shows what one of these runs looked like. Officers were told they were responding to a disturbance at a bar. When the scenario started, the encountered an assistant playing the role of the suspect. The officer started talking to the suspect and after a few minutes the suspect would pull his shock knife and charge the officer. The officer would then draw and fire at the suspect.

In this study, 7 (12%) officers completely failed to draw and fire. They were not able to successfully negotiate the retention mechanisms on their holsters and even begin to draw before the suspect was on them. For the officers that drew and fired, the average reaction time was 1.43 seconds. This time was statistically significantly faster than was found in the second study. Additionally, only 76% of the officers successfully shot the suspect. The authors carefully compared the draw in this study with the run times in the first and arrived at the conclusion that if you wanted 95% of the officers to be able to fire before a random suspect reached them, the officer and the suspect would have to be about 32 feet apart!

In the fourth study, the authors examined the impact of movement on the ability of a suspect to stab an officer. One hundred and thirty-seven students played the role of suspects who charged an officer that was questioning them from 21 feet away. When the suspects charged the officer, he was randomly assigned to move in 1 of 4 directions while drawing his weapon and firing. The first was to back peddle away from the suspect. The second was to sidestep at a 90 degree angle. The third was to step at a 45-degree angle toward the suspect, and in the last condition, the officer did not move.

The suspects were able to successfully stab the officer before he drew and fired 33% of the time when the officer stood still, 26% of the time when the officer moved at a 45-degree angle toward the suspect, 8% of the time when the officer back peddled, and 5% of the time when the officer sidestepped. These differences were statistically significant and suggested the movement had a moderate effect on the ability of the suspect to stab the officer.

So What?

These studies showed that, in many cases, 21 feet is not a safe distance from a charging suspect. Something more around 32 feet would be required for almost all officers to draw and fire before a suspect reached them. This is also just to get a single shot off. Those of you who are familiar with injuries from pistol rounds will know that many times a single pistol shot will not stop someone. Officers need to be aware that they are at risk further away than has been frequently taught.

The fourth study also shows that movement can protect officers. Movement makes the suspect adjust their charge, which makes them slower. This is not the only study that ALERRT has done which suggests that movement can protect officers (see this post). My question for all of you is this, given that movement can protect officers, how many of you are training officers to move while shooting?

Finally, let’s not forget the 7 officers who were completely unable to draw under stress. This is a clear indication that they have either not received effective training or have failed to continue to practice what they were taught. I have seen the finger pointed at the individual officers in many cases. People will often insist that the officer needs to train on his own. It is great when officers put in that effort, but expecting officers to maintain critical skills on their own is not a reasonable organizational strategy. If it is critical to the survival of officers and the safety of citizens, managers (chiefs on down) must ensure that their people receive the training that they need. To do otherwise is simply negligent. Policing needs to become a training culture where training happens all the time, not just a few times a year.