Earlier this month Concord police shot and killed a 54-year old burglary suspect.
To help reduce such killings, police officers across the state are taking lessons in when to fire and when not to.
The Hillsborough Villager newspaper's Matt Casey recently watched one of those training sessions.
He files this report.
In the middle of the day, Officer John Minichiello ascended a staircase in downtown Hillsborough and came upon a domestic dispute.
An angry woman was assaulting her boyfriend.
Officer: What's going on here?
Woman: He slept with my sister, that's what's going on.
Officer: What did he do?
Woman: He slept with my sister.
Officer: I'll tell you what. I don't want you to speak. We have a complaint downstairs...
Minichiello then attempted to defuse the situation.
This dispute, unlike one in real life, ended with the blow of a whistle.
(sound of whistle)
Officer Minichiello works part time for the Hancock and Deering police departments.
Earlier this month, he attended a special training session on the use of force.
Volunteers played the role of the arguing couple.
When the exercise was over, they offered him advice.
Ethel: The only tip I would say is your voice a little bit more...
Fred: yeah, just to put me in my place.
The instructor is Deputy Sheriff Michael Frost, from Essex County, Massachusetts.
He gave Minichiello credit for solving the conflict.
But, he added, the officer missed a few very important details.
A shotgun was leaning against a wall to his right.
And a pistol lay on a box in the corner.
Frost: You kept control of him verbally, having him stay in the seat, that's a good tactic. if you let either one of these get out of control it was going to be a very bad day for you.
Minichiello admitted he got a case of tunnel vision.
Two people were yelling at him, and they had captured his attention.
Later, when asked, he said this training has taught him to be more aware.
Minichiello and approximately ten other officers went through a series of six different scenarios that day in Hillsborough.
The exercises ranged from a simple traffic stop to a gunman holding another officer hostage.
Some scenarios ended without force.
Others did not.
(sounds of yelling, gunshot
But even when bullets flew, no one got hurt.
Al Burbank runs the training program.
"There's a wax bullet so that officers, should they choose to shoot this round, it will, it's just a soapy wax mixture that has a colored dye. Whatever it strikes it leaves a stain so we can tell where it hit so if it strikes an individual or it strikes a wall or if it misses we can have instant feedback on how they did firing that weapon. ...."
Officers and participants all wore masks and padded vests.
Burbank works for an organization called the Local Government Center.
The center provides legal advice and insurance coverage for many small New Hampshire towns.
Burbank says the reason the Local Government Center supports this training program is because better trained officers mean fewer lawsuits.
"One of the high liability areas, where we see a lot of claims is in officer's use of force. Either perceived to be excessive or improper use of force."
Burbank says towns report that the training has resulted in reduced claims.
Deputy Sheriff Frost said he customizes scenarios to the town.
He draws from a library of more than 100 real life situations.
He also said he neither expects nor wants any two officers to respond to an exercise exactly the same.
"I think what we need to do is to do more to maximize the gifts that they have because of who they are, not what they are... who they are is who their family has helped make them... I don't want it to be as I said before the cookie cutter approach where everyone comes out walking talking the same way."
Frost said officers learn something in this training regardless of their level of experience.
He also said he hopes the training will help the officers complete the most important mission all officers have.
That's to return to their families at the end of the day.
For NHPR News, I'm Matt Casey.
