Police Shootings

Get a deeper understanding of police shootings through interviews with officers involved in real-life cases. Today’s media is filled with discussions about officer-involved shootings. Too often missing from that discussion are the police officers’ voices and the reality of what happens in actual shooting incidents. Through actual interviews with involved officers, this book addresses common myths and misunderstandings about these shootings. Shots Fired is a journey “behind the shield” and the experiences of the real human beings behind the badge.

Adam Plantinga, author of the acclaimed 400 Things Cops Know and a 17-year veteran sergeant with the San Francisco Police Department, gives an inside view of the police officer's job, from handling evidence and conducting interrogations to coping with danger, violence, and death. Not hesitating to confront controversial issues, Plantinga presents the police officer's views on police shootings, racial profiling, and relationships between police and the community.

In 2015, The Washington Post launched an unprecedented effort to account for every fatal shooting by an officer of the law. Their study has motivated the FBI to action, and changed the way we think of those who serve and protect. After a police officer shot and killed a black teenager in Ferguson, Missouri, the media began to pay greater attention to deadly interactions between black men and the law. But when reporters tried to get to the bottom of some basic questions. they came up blank.