A Brief History
On April 6, 1970, a California Highway Patrol (CHP) traffic stop turned deadly when two CHP officers stopped a car containing two criminals and those two officers were killed in the shootout. The next two CHP officers on the scene were also shot and killed, with one suspect later committing suicide when surrounded and the other later killing himself while in jail doing a life term. The horrible results of what is known as the Newhall Incident resulted in a rethinking of police firearms training and equipment in California.
Digging Deeper
Analysis of the shootout found that the officers quickly ran out of ammo with their six shot .357 Magnum revolvers, and fumbled around trying to reload those wheel guns without the benefit of speed-loaders. A helpful citizen that arrived when the second pair of officers arrived picked up a revolver from one of the first CHP officers that died and joined the gunfight on the side of the police. This citizen quickly ran out of ammo and had to flee.
Problems with the law enforcement side of the tragic shootout concerned both training and equipment. The issued revolvers were .357 Magnum caliber six shooters, but the officers had only practiced and qualified with much lower powered .38 Special ammunition. The officers were thus unfamiliar with the heavy recoil of the Magnum ammo. The low capacity of on board ammunition in the revolvers, only 6 rounds, was less than the 7 or 8 rounds of typical semi-automatic pistols, and the agonizingly slow reloading of loose ammunition into the revolver’s cylinder was also found to be a deadly flaw. (Reloading ammunition in a semi-automatic pistol is lightning fast by dropping an empty magazine and inserting a loaded magazine.) Another potential solution would be to equip officers with a back-up pistol, preferably in the same caliber as their duty sidearm.
These problems were addressed by the California Highway Patrol issuing speed-loaders to their officers, greatly speeding up the time it took to reload their revolvers. Another step concerned training, which continued to use the lower powered .38 Special ammunition, but of course practicing reloads with speed-loaders. Ammunition issued for duty use was changed to only be .38 Special rounds so that officers would train and patrol with the same ammunition.
Other changes in procedure and training concerned the use of the shotgun and felony stop high-risk tactics. Firearms were standardized as well. One thing that was not changed was the reliance on the antiquated technology of revolvers instead of modern semi-automatic pistols. Today, it is a rare thing to see an actual police officer with a revolver (though security guards often still carry revolvers), with almost all police equipped with semi-automatic pistols, sometimes with as many as 20 rounds in the magazine! (Note: Virtually every single military force in the world uses semi-automatic pistols instead of revolvers.)
Another change seen in many police departments across the United States is a switch from each police car being equipped with a 12 Gauge shotgun to many opting for a Patrol Carbine instead, arming the officers with a rifle similar to the military M-4 Carbine (M-16 derivative) or another such carbine in 5.56mm caliber or other carbine friendly calibers such as 7.62 X 39mm, .30 Carbine, or pistol calibers such as 9mm or .45 ACP. Out West it was not uncommon to find police equipped with lever action rifles or carbines in 30-30 caliber. This change gives the cops a much more accurate platform from which to engage targets at longer than pistol ranges with more precision than shotguns.
As we have in numerous other articles, we once again take this opportunity to urge community activists and/or any other citizen interested in or critical of police shooting incidents to take part in police type shooting exercises, especially “shoot, don’t shoot” type drills. If you go through even minimal practice in this area you will find how excruciatingly hard it is to consistently choose who to shoot and when, and how darn hard it is to hit the bad guy, let alone some sort of unrealistic Hollywood inspired precision wounding shooting.
Question for students (and subscribers) to ponder: What are your suggestions, comments, experiences, or whatever regarding police firearms techniques and training?
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Historical Evidence
For more information about the California Highway Patrol, please see…
Estrada, Erik and Rick Mattos. California Highway Patrol (Images of America). Arcadia Publishing, 2008.
Wick, Robert. California Highway Patrol Yesterday and Today. Phase Three Pub, 1990.
For more information about the specific incident discussed in this article, please see…
Anderson, John and Marsh Cassady, et al. The Newhall Incident. Craven Street Books, 1999.
Ayoob, Massad and Michael E. Wood. Newhall Shooting – A Tactical Analysis: Survival Lessons from One of Law Enforcement’s Deadliest Shootings. Gun Digest Books, 2013.
