Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word
officer-involved shooting. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
officer-involved shooting, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
officer-involved shooting in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
officer-involved shooting you have here. The definition of the word
officer-involved shooting will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition of
officer-involved shooting, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
English
Noun
officer-involved shooting (plural officer-involved shootings)
- (US, euphemistic) An incident in which a police officer shoots at another person.
- Synonym: OIS (abbreviation)
Usage notes
- Originally used by police departments and adopted by journalists, the term has been criticized as an intentionally misleading euphemism that obscures police agency.[1][2] It is exclusively used to refer to shootings committed by police, not shootings committed by other people where police are present. Beyond that no standard definition exists,[3] and usage differs regarding whether the shooting must be intentional, whether the person must be hit, and whether the officer must be on duty at the time. For example:
police definitions
- San Francisco Police Department:
- An officer's discharge of a firearm that results in the physical injury or death of a person, even if it is an accidental discharge.[4]
- Anchorage Police Department:
- An incident in which a sworn employee of the Anchorage Police Department purposefully discharged a firearm at a human being.[5]
- Austin Police Department:
- An incident in which an officer fired his/her firearm intentionally at a subject;
- an incident in which an officer fired his/her firearm unintentionally and struck a subject;
- or an incident in which an officer used a less-lethal firearm, struck the subject, and contributed to the subject’s death.[6]
- International Association of Chiefs of Police:
- A discharge of a service weapon by an officer during a hostile encounter or an accidental discharge, while on-duty or off-duty, irrespective of injuries to suspects, officers, or third parties.[7]
References