As one who has worked with officers for over 20 years, who’s brother is an officer of 24 years, good training that is followed in the field could prevent many of these shootings. For example, the Cleveland shooting was a case of officers being too close to a potentially armed individual thus severely decreasing those officers reaction time. Officers should have been several YARDS away coming at the suspect from different directions barking out commands as they approached. This would have given them a greater time window for reacting to the kid’s actions. Same goes for Officer Wilson in Ferguson, why on earth was he close enough to PROVEN hostile suspects that he was able to be assaulted in his vehicle through an open window?? Don’t get me wrong, according to the many officers I have conversed with regarding these cases, all strongly feel that the shootings were justified given the immediate circumstances but that better training or training that was not utilized could have prevented both shootings.
I am sure you are right. My point is merely that “I couldn’t tell he was a 14 year old” and/or “It *looked* like a real gun, not a BB gun” are simply not answers that will be accepted by most of the public anymore.