The bad guy blinks, drops his pistol. He raises his hands and gets down on his knees, then his belly.
Ideally, every confrontation between an officer and an armed criminal would end like that. Luckily for cops and bad guys, most armed confrontations in Rock County have ended that way.
But if the criminal persists, advances and/or points his gun, the officer's next move is deadly force.
The unspoken emphasis is on deadly.
"We don't shoot to kill. We don't shoot to wound. We shoot to stop that specific threat," said Sgt. Curt Fell of the Rock County Sheriff's Department. "In order to justify the use of deadly force, there has to be a threat of death or great bodily harm to ourselves or someone else."
Janesville police officer Paul McBride takes aim at a target at the department's shooting range. Much of the training that officers go through deals with real-life situations instead of target practice.
Al Hoch/Gazette Staff
Officer Brad Weins of the Janesville Police Department echoed Fell:
"Any time a weapon comes out, deadly force is certainly an option. We don't train officers to shoot to wound. We train them to put the person down."
The most effective way to do that with a handgun is a head shot.
The first two shots a Janesville officer learns to fire in close quarters are at the assailant's body because the two are at arm's length and a head shot is difficult. The officer is trained to then step back and fire twice at the assailant's head.
Fell, county firearms instructor, trains Rock County deputies to take head shots at 20 feet or less and to shoot at torsos at 20 feet or more.
Local cops learn this part of their job first in police academy training, then at shooting ranges under veterans' supervision. They train and practice until they pass.
Janesville police must hit their targets at least 75 percent of the time. Their qualification shooting is timed.
County deputies must post scores of 70 percent or higher, 90 percent or better if they are SWAT Team members.
Most shoot better than the minimum, reported Fell and Weins, one of three shift shooting officers.
"Most of my guys, all older day-shift guys, shoot in the 90s. But new recruits do quite well. They've had over 40 hours of firearms training (at the police academy)," Weins said.
The county tracks the scores of all sworn personnel. Every county sworn officer-from the greenest deputy to Sheriff Bob Spoden-must qualify annually with a pistol and long gun, either shotgun or rifle, preferably both.
The county ranks the scores from lowest, marksman, to highest, pistol master.
Of the 87 people who shot in the last qualification round, only four finished at marksman, Fell said.
Janesville police must qualify twice yearly with both pistols and shotguns. They don't categorize scores into proficiency levels and don't record scores beyond noting that an officer qualified, said Sgt. Craig Klementz, the department's overall range master.
"We try to avoid competition," Klementz said, "because we try to teach real-life shooting skills. Taking aim with one eye trying to hit a bull's-eye is not what would happen on the street."
What could happen on the street is a hand-to-hand scuffle with the crook drawing a gun.
Officer Paul McBride demonstrated at the shooting range the technique Janesville cops learn for such confrontations. He wore the required ear and eye protection and stood at arm's length from the target, a thigh-up photo of a man pointing a gun.
In one move, McBride raised his left arm to fend off the attacker with forearm and elbow and drew his pistol with his right hand.
"Police! Put the gun down!"
BANG! BANG!
McBride took two steps back, gripped the gun with two hands.
"Police! Put the gun down!"
BANG! BANG!
The target had four holes in it: one in the abdomen, one in the chest and two in the face.
Score: 100.
Even for observers wearing protective earmuffs, the shots' reports were loud and startling.
"I've had students who shot a gun for the first time and burst into tears," said Weins.
And he's had to rein in some cowboys over the years.
He would rather train someone who's never shot a gun than people who think they know how to shoot "because they shot at grandma's farm," Weins said.
"When I got hired, it was the first time I ever fired a pistol. I just listened to the instructor," said McBride, a 17½-year police veteran.
But shooting is not the first thing a new officer learns.
"The first thing we teach officers is to verbalize-and continue to verbalize: 'Police! Get down!' It's a verbal stun. People often react to a verbal command and drop the gun," Weins said. "Continue to use verbalization. At some point, the person might give up. Our goal is to get the person down on the ground."
Fell agreed: "You yell, 'Drop the gun,' and they drop it. It's a good day all around."
Training for both departments involves distinguishing bad guys from cops and civilians.
Picture targets have different overlays, so that the same fellow might display a gun one time through the course, a badge the next time and a beer can the third, Fell explained.
Safety is paramount through both departments' training.
Every time Weins or Fell handled a weapon, they made sure its firing chamber was clear.
"I never point a gun at someone," Weins said.
How good are they?
Eighty-seven people qualified the last time the Rock County Sheriff's Department tested the shooting skills of its sworn personnel.
A perfect score is 150, and the minimum to qualify is 105.
Here are the categories and the number of deputies that qualified in each:
-- Pistol master (perfect score): 7.
-- Expert (135 to 149): 50.
-- Sharpshooter (120 to 134): 26.
-- Marksman (105 to 119): 4.
What they carry
-- Janesville Police Department
Pistol: .40-caliber Smith & Wesson Sigma, semi-automatic.
Two models, one with 14-shot magazine plus one round in the chamber; one with 15-shot magazine and one round in chamber.
Ammunition interchangeable with Rock County's .40-caliber handguns.
Pistol: .40-caliber Glock 22, semi-automatic with 15-shot magazine and one round in chamber. Slightly smaller .40-caliber Glock 23s on order for detectives and administrative personnel.
