There are a higher percentage of LE and similar who are *into guns* than among the overall nationwide population . But that's damning with faint praise. The average LE wants to. Simply pass the once or twice a year Qualification, and then put it out of mind until next time. If they score several points above minimum , they congradulate each other.

That said , that level of skill of arms is *usually* sufficient. Good cops do accel at situational awareness, and good awareness combined with tactics that aren't totally stupid go a long way to survival , and hopefully prevailing over the BG's.

If we make a comparison to reasonably proficent general population gunowners, it's interesting. If you compare civillians who are gun enthusiests sufficient to join Gun Clubs and occasional participate in informal Club Matches to LE whose skill level is closely represented to that of scoring "Expert" at typical Qualification, those Ofc will typically place somewhere midpack against average Gun Club members.

I have above referenced several times to "Precise , rapid first shot hits" . My thinking on this has evolved.

For years I worked at drawing , and placing "center mass" hits , and I eventually was slicker than hog snot at hitting the 5pt zone of a B27 from the leather, and thought I was doing well.

And then one day at the gun club , we were informally shooting at 8in and 10in steel plates randomly placed between 15-25yds. Whoa ! Things were suddenly different. Using my then prefered ( style A) I could be my usual speed , but mainly be kinda close misses. I first tried to really do well at the same old technique , but to get consistant hits had to slow down to half speed. Humm. Started trying my quiver of alternative styles I had filled away . And eventually (style B) produced consistant hits , while picking back up about half the speed reduction.

And the point to all that ?

Meanwhile , I had been hearing from people whose judgement I give weight to consistantly that the maximum scoring zones of virtually all the humanoid targets then in use were way too big, and misplaced. Not going into the debate of exact location of desired targeting area in this thread , but in it's generous interpetation is in the same range of sq inches as 8 to 1in steel plates.

My real point after all that ? That I can hit the smaller , more effective target area with a K Frame ( or belt sized semi ) with similar speed to hiting "anywhere on torso" with J Frame ( or pocket sized polymer service cal semi ).

Meanwhile , there WAS a study that touched upon hit potential as factor of pistol type. Back during the era of flux , during the great transition of American LE armement , Richard Faiburn did a large study of LE gunfights , initially published in Police Marksman. Most of the attention was focoused on the relative effectiveness of the different cal and loads.(Skipping over for this thread) But he also discovered somthing else as a sidebar:

.38spl revolvers and hi cap semi's had similar hit percentages . However 1911's and magnum (loaded w/ magnum) revolver had about double the hit percentages.

He briefly guessed at causes. At the time , it was still common for 4in .38spl to be lowest common denominator default issue weapons , while everything else required decision making , if not effort and expense for ofc to use instead. Under than thinking , the totally uninterested stayed with std .38spl. Those inclined to spray and pray self selected to hi cap 9mm. And and those inclined to master a 1911 or full power magnum , were likely to have developed better marksmanship skills. Makes intuitive sense to me , but difficult to prove , and the era with substantial usage of that many different types of handguns was brief. [ Today were have great diversity of Calibres , but nearly all in hi cap semiautos of some flavor of either DA for first critical shot , or DAO-ish for all shots.]