Police are not more trigger-happy, says research

Police agents do not pull their guns more often than in the past, a police studies professor told news agency ANP on Tuesday.


Jaap Timmer, head of police studies at the VU university in Amsterdam, says figures from the past 35 years show an average of three deaths and 15 wounded during police shootings.
‘If people think the police use their guns more often now, they are looking at the years 2005 and 2006 when the number of killed and wounded was historically low,’ Timmer told ANP.
According to his research, this year three people have died and five or six have been wounded by police bullets, which is fairly normal, he says.
The number of people shot dead each year fluctuates between one (for example, 2005 and 2008) and seven (1986). The number of wounded is between seven and 29, Timmer told ANP.

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