"Rules of force" and Coatesville PD

"During a training course on defending against knife attacks, a young Salt Lake City police officer asked a question: “How close can somebody get to me before I’m justified in using deadly force?” 

"Dennis Tueller, the instructor in that class more than three decades ago, decided to find out. In the fall of 1982, he performed a rudimentary series of tests and concluded that an armed attacker who bolted toward an officer could clear 21 feet in the time it took most officers to draw, aim and fire their weapon. 

The next spring, Mr. Tueller published his findings in SWAT magazine and transformed police training in the United States. The “21-foot rule” became dogma. It has been taught in police academies around the country, accepted by courts and cited by officers to justify countless shootings, including recent episodes involving a homeless woodcarver in Seattle and a schizophrenic woman in San Francisco. 

Now, amid the largest national debate over policing since the 1991 beating of Rodney King in Los Angeles, a small but vocal set of law enforcement officials are calling for a rethinking of the 21-foot rule and other axioms that have emphasized how to use force, not how to avoid it. Several big-city police departments are already re-examining when officers should chase people or draw their guns and when they should back away, wait or try to defuse the situation." 

READ MORE AT: 

 New York Times

Police Rethink Long Tradition on Using Force  

By MATT APUZZOMAY 4, 2015

"Shoot first and ask questions later." is part of the American West tradition. And also Nazi Germany: 

"Shoot first and inquire afterwards, and if you make mistakes, I will protect you." - Hermann Göring. 

Instruction to the Prussian police (1933); as quoted in The House that Hitler Built (1937) by Stephen Henry Roberts. p. 63

Hermann Göring  Reichsmarschall Hermann Wilhelm Göring [also rendered as Goering] (12 January 1893 – 15 October 1946) was a German politician, military leader, and leading member of the Nazi party. He was founder of the Gestapo, and Head of the Luftwaffe 

FROM:

http://en.m.wikiquote.org/wiki/Hermann_G%C3%B6ring 

On Jan. 17, 2001, police responded to a domestic dispute involving a man in camouflage gear waving a semiautomatic pistol. As two officers approached the Caln Township residence, a shot was fired "in such a manner as to place individuals in danger," court records said.

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WEDNESDAY, MAY 18, 2011 

Kevin Johnson about the 2001 incident

In the 1950s a Coatesville officer was confronted by a teenager with a shotgun. The teenager allegedly pointed a shotgun at the officer. The Coatesville officer talked to the boy. The boy handed the shotgun to the Coatesville officer. 

I'm not sure if the Coatesville PD adopted the "Rules of force", but there is a tradition here of defusing dangerous situations.