A note on ‘shoot to incapacitate’ deadly force policies

Traditional police firearms training instructs officers to aim for center mass (i.e. the mid- to upper-chest region) when using deadly force. Starting in 2021, officers in the LaGrange (Georgia) Police Department (LPD) were formally trained that they now had the option of lowering their point of aim to the lower abdomen and upper thigh region (i.e. the pelvic girdle) under certain circumstances – namely when confronted by an individual who presents a deadly threat in the form of an edged weapon or blunt object (i.e. melee weapons). LPD formally named this their ‘Shoot to Incapacitate’ (SI) policy. Since its inception, SI has received local and national media attention as well as being subjected to rigorous debate among policing and research circles. In this research note, we present arguments for and against SI policies with a particular focus on whether such a policy is useful and can ultimately decrease mortality.