Average Police Sniper Distances
By Derrick Bartlett
Average distance of a police sniper shooting in the United States? For at least
the past 20 years, the generic answer to that question has been “around 70 yards.” This
yardage has been stated as fact in sniper schools, articles, books, and conversations
around the country. When pressed for a source of this information, most people have
credited “the FBI’s statistics.”
When the American Sniper Association was formed in 2000, one of the first
orders of business was obtaining a copy of those statistics to see how current they
were, and to try to update them. We were somewhat amazed to discover that the FBI
didn’t collect information or statistics specific to police sniper shootings. The report so
many snipers, instructors, and authors had been quoting and relying on was, in fact, a
myth, a complete urban legend.
Realizing this information had never been collected, ASA seized upon this as an
opportunity to impact the sniper community in a beneficial and positive way. We initiated
a project to gather statistical data about police sniper use of force engagements. We
developed a survey form that asked the questions we felt were of most interest and
importance to sniper teams and administrators. We established the parameters of our
survey field with regard to the agencies to be involved, time span to be covered, and
types of engagements that would qualify as “sniper” shootings.
Survey Methodology
The US Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Statistics was asked to
provide a current listing of agencies from around the country that maintain a SWAT
team. The DOJ’s annual report, “Law Enforcement Management Statistics, Data of
Individual State and Local Agencies,” provided an alphabetized listing of 897 agencies
to contact. Agencies outside of our initial contact schedule were made aware of the
survey process through presentations made by ASA personnel at tactical conferences,
sniper schools, seminars, and competitions, nationwide. After advising them of the
survey and explaining our goals and objectives, interested attendees were given survey
forms to complete. Notifications were also made on our website, and in the Snipercraft
newsletter. Articles explaining the survey process and its goals and objectives were
published in several major tactical and law enforcement magazines. As a result of
reading the articles, agencies contacted ASA to request forms. These were faxed or e-
mailed to those requesting them.
By monitoring newspapers and wire services, we were made aware of sniper-
related incidents occurring around the country during the survey period. In these cases,
we were able to directly contact the involved agencies to obtain information. The end
result of this process was that, although our initial contact pool was limited to agencies
known to have SWAT teams, many agencies beyond the scope of this group voluntarily
participated in the survey after direct contacts with ASA personnel. This, in turn, has led
to a more comprehensive and complete survey of tactical teams around the country by
reaching additional teams that would not have been included.
After the data collection phase of this project was completed, time was invested
in verification of the information gathered. Many of the agencies contacted in the initial
phase were contacted again to clarify vague or conflicting information. Hundreds of
additional man-hours were spent searching newspaper archives in attempts to find story
details about most of the documented incidents. This project was ambitious at the
outset and has proven arduous in the execution.
We are proud to announce the release of the Police Sniper Utilization Report.
This report is a significant accomplishment and is unprecedented in its scope. A
comprehensive study of the use and effectiveness of police snipers in the United States
exists for the first time in history. The finished product is not a dry recitation of numbers
and statistics. Instead, we have compiled data and relevant anecdotal information,
which will prove useful in understanding how snipers have been employed over the past
two decades.
In addition to knowing the average distance of police sniper shootings, you will
find other operational information, for example, the longest and shortest distances
encountered. The breakdown shows how many have occurred in daylight, as opposed
to low light. You will also see how often shots have passed through intermediate
barriers, as well as how many have passed through their intended target. Many more
operational circumstances are recorded and quantified here as well. The data in this
report will give administrators, snipers, and team leaders a clearer picture of real world
sniper operations. We expect it will also help dispel a number of misconceptions about
snipers. We hope this information will assist you and your SWAT team leadership in
structuring training, buying equipment, and planning deployments.
An important point worth mentioning deals not with the contents of the report, but
with the process itself. In contacting agencies around the country, many were eager to
participate. Obviously, these are teams who see the value in compiling this type of
operational research. Others amazed us by finding a variety of reasons to refuse to
share basic statistical information with us.
Highlights
Only shots that were the result of “a deliberate long rifle shot, by a person
assigned to the sniper position, against a designated human target,” are recorded as a
sniper shot. This excluded shots by entry or perimeter officers, or shots taken with
handguns or sub machineguns. It also excludes shots on animals, cars, or other
objects. We did receive report forms detailing shootings in these categories. We
received responses from 664 agencies fitting our search criteria. We found that in some
cases, agencies had either consolidated with other agencies into multi-jurisdictional
teams, or had disbanded their teams altogether.
To date, we have collected reports of 219 sniper shootings occurring between
1984 and 2004. Not surprisingly, the .308 Win has been the most common caliber used
by snipers, occurring in 74% of the reports. Others employed have included .223 Rem,
30-06 Spfld, .270 Win, 6mm Rem, .243 Win, and 30-30 Win. Contrary to common
beliefs, just half of the persons shot were struck in the head. The other half were hit in
the body or their extremities. Of all these shots, 80% were fatal. Of the shots fired, 34%
were in barricade scenarios, 36% were in hostage situations, and 21% involved a
suicidal subject.
Much of traditional sniper training has been limited to prone, bipod, 100-yard
shooting drills. A fact verified by the report is sniper shootings are very likely to be done
from a variety of distances, and seldom from a prone bipod position. Instead,
documentation shows snipers have had to utilize standing, sitting, kneeling, squatting,
and improvised positions as well. Hopefully, this knowledge will inspire teams to
incorporate position shooting into their training programs in the future. It certainly
removes the most common excuses to avoid doing so.
Night vision equipment has played only a limited role in actual shootings to date.
However, there is a demonstrated need for teams to purchase and train with night
vision. Nearly 45% of the shootings documented occurred during low-light hours.
We were able to document several instances where two snipers fired
simultaneous shots at a single suspect. However, none of the reports received recorded
sniper engagements on multiple suspects.
The shortest sniper shooting included in the report is five yards. This shot was
taken indoors in a hostage situation. The sniper was forced to use a teammate as a
standing support to make a shot on a very elusive and fleeting target. This was
accomplished in poor lighting within a compressed time frame.
The longest shot to date is not as clear. The one incident we were able to best
document was 187 yards, again in a hostage rescue operation handled by the
Pennsylvania State Police. We were able to interview the sniper and he provided ample
documentation to verify the distance. Legend has always mentioned a 400-yard sniper
shooting at the Washington Monument as the longest on record. However, in keeping
with our stated criteria of “a deliberate long rifle shot against a designated human
target,” we felt this one involved too many exceptional circumstances to qualify as a
sniper shooting, per se. We were fortunate enough to be able to talk to one of the
snipers involved that day. A protester, later identified as Norman David Mayer, claimed
to have explosives in his van as it sat near the base of the monument. When the van
started to drive away, a fusillade was unleashed in an effort to stop it. In reading the
reports, it is revealed that as many as fourteen officers with rifles fired an undetermined
number of rounds at the subject’s van, allegedly with the intention of disabling the van.
However, the driver was killed after being struck four times. The average recorded
distance in this incident was 485 yards. It is also worth noting this is the earliest
recorded use of night vision scopes by police snipers.
The average police sniper distance was 51 yards. Of all the sniper shots, 95%
took place between zero and 100 yards. The rest were equally divided between the 100
to 150 yard bracket and the 150 to 250 yard bracket. This has profound training
implications.
Among the many lessons learned from reviewing the report, one in particular is
worthy of a special mention. The majority of the documented sniper shootings were
done with .308 Win caliber weapons. Where the ammunition is listed, the overwhelming
choice has been the 168- grain MatchKing bullet, also known as the HollowPoint
BoatTail. This round has been the preferred ammunition for snipers for decades, based
primarily on its accuracy and consistency. However, a serious shortcoming of the round
has always existed. A frighteningly high number (90%) of sniper shootings have
resulted in through and through wounds. Shot placement isn’t a contributing factor as
these results have occurred with both headshots and torso hits. There seems to be a
direct correlation between over penetration and the use of the HollowPoint BoatTail
bullet, so favored by snipers to date. The round is not a true hollowpoint, which is
designed to expand in tissue. As a result, its performance, in terms of terminal ballistics,
raises, or should raise, concerns among sniper teams currently using this bullet. While it
has reliably stopped people, it is very likely to come out the other side.
Of the shots taken, 23% involved intermediate barriers. This fact alone should
encourage the use of a bullet other than the MatchKing HollowPoint BoatTail. In study
after study, this load has performed poorly after penetrating barriers, including both
tumbling and large differences between point of aim and point of impact. At some point,
this MatchKing HPBT bullet is going to cause an inadvertent injury or death to a hostage
or team member, or result in a miss after a barrier and the resulting consequences.
Hopefully, by documenting these problems, we can steer teams away from this bullet
and encourage manufacturers to work on better designs for our purpose, like a Match-
grade tactical bullet.
The Caveat
The report carries an implied warning for every agency reading it. We have
clearly documented what snipers are facing in realworld operations. Knowing what
snipers are really doing should become the framework for designing training to prepare
your team for the realities of the job.
From this day forward, if a team chooses to do otherwise, they do so at their own
peril. This report will help quantify the standards all teams will be expected to meet. It is
important that the tactical community not shy away from taking a critical look at its
training and deployment history and pay attention to the lessons waiting to be learned.
Where applicable, we have identified learning points found in specific incidents.
In many of these, the responsible sniper team provides them. Others are drawn from
objective analysis of the facts of the incident. In the tactical world, information has
incredible value.
Ours is a profession involving split-second decisions that can save lives, and
reliable information can literally make the difference between life and death in an
operation. However, information is useless unless it is openly shared. What is contained
in the report is information agencies have agreed to share with the rest of the tactical
community, with the hope that it will make your job safer and easier. If you learn nothing
else from reading the report, we hope you will come away with an understanding of how
important it is to share your experience with others.
Although the initial report is completed, the process is not. Our hope is to make it
a living document. We hope to encourage agencies to help us maintain current data by
reporting any sniper involved shootings to the ASA, as soon as it is practical. This will
keep us from having to mount a similar collection effort three years from now when we
hope to publish an updated report. We understand the issues raised by ongoing
investigations and pending litigation. Our need is for statistical information. The
information requested on the survey form is basic, non-judgmental details contained in
an incident report. We don’t need investigative information that could be subpoenaed or
otherwise used in a civil case. The individual officer or agency involved is not part of the
database and neither is identified in the report.
Most agencies around the country routinely provide Uniform Crime Reports to the
FBI. What we are asking for is the same sort of diligence in reporting any sniper-
involved shootings that occur in your jurisdiction. All data and information collected will
be considered sensitive, and will not be distributed to the general public. A Sniper
Utilization Survey Form can be found on the American Sniper Association website,
www.americansniper.org. Derrick Bartlett is the President of the American Sniper
Association and a sniper with the Ft. Lauderdale, FL Police. For a copy of the report, or
for more information, he may be reached via info@americansniper.org.
