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Abstract

Active shooter events have driven police to change how they respond to events where an attacker is actively engaged in killing civilians. This paper examines these changes through the lenses of Normal Accident Theory (NAT) and Resilience Engineering (RE). Our results show a police officer is shot in one out of every six active shooter events in the United States. We then apply RE to better understand how these shootings occur so that police can improve their ability to anticipate, monitor, and respond during these attacks. Implications for police training are discussed.

Keywords

Resilience Engineering normal accidents assaults on police active shooter events

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