Shots Fired

Get a deeper understanding of police shootings through interviews with officers involved in real-life casesToday’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 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. It explores true events through the participants’ own eyes and takes readers inside the minds of officers during the actual event. The officers detail the roller coaster of emotions and severe trauma experienced during and after a shooting event. Along with the intimate, in-depth explorations of the incidents themselves, the book touches the aftermath of police-involved shootings—the debriefings, internal and external investigations, and psychological evaluations. It challenges many commonly held assumptions created by the media such as the meaning of “unarmed” and why the police can’t just “shoot him in the leg,” creating an understanding that reaches beyond slogans such as “hands up, don’t shoot.”The book is valuable reading for anyone who wants a deeper understanding of police shootings—officers and police departments, reporters and politicians, and the public who rely on the police to keep them safe.

Joseph K. Loughlin is a former assistant chief of police for the City of Portland, Maine, and also served as the commander of the Special Reaction Team and was a team member for more than twenty years. Loughlin is a graduate of the FBI National Academy Command training in Quantico, Virginia. He currently consults for 3SI International Security Systems and functions as a regional coordinator of police trainings and special projects. Loughlin currently resides in South Portland, Maine.Kate Clark Flora writes true crime, strong women, and police procedurals. A Good Man with a Dog is a memoir she co-wrote with a retired Maine game warden. Her fascination with people?s bad behavior began in the Maine attorney general?s office, where she chased deadbeat dads and protected battered children. Flora lives in Concord, Massachusetts.Loughlin and Flora previously collaborated on the true crime story Finding Amy, which was nominated for an Edgar Award.