Quote of note:

Officers who have shot at suspects three or more times represent less than 1% of the force. But they were involved in 20% of all LAPD shootings since 1985.

Little is known about why they pull the trigger so often. Few researchers have paid attention to the phenomenon. The LAPD does not track frequent shooters. It does not even know who they are.

The Times discovered the cadre of repeat shooters through a computer analysis of 1,437 officer-involved shootings from 1985 through mid-2004.

Of an estimated 16,000 officers who worked field assignments during that time, only 103 fired at suspects on three or more occasions, the analysis revealed. Among 9,100 active officers, just 69 have three or more shootings.

Some of these officers serve in SWAT teams, narcotics squads or other high-risk units. But that does not explain their propensity to fire. In their use of deadly force, they stand out even when compared with officers in identical assignments in the same parts of the city.

Moreover, many continued to fire frequently even as the overall number of officer-involved shootings declined over the last decade.

Frequent Fire
The LAPD knows little about why a tiny number of officers have used deadly force much more often than their colleagues
By Scott Glover, Matt Lait and Doug Smith
Times Staff Writers

October 18, 2004

Most Los Angeles police officers go through their entire careers without ever firing a shot in the line of duty.

Not Bill Rhetts.

He shot and killed a gang member who was firing a handgun at him. He shot and paralyzed a man wielding a pistol. He wounded a teenager brandishing what turned out to be a BB gun. After leaving the LAPD for the Riverside Police Department, he shot an unarmed suspect hiding in a doghouse.

After the last incident, a psychiatrist declared him unfit for duty. Rhetts said he was angry — until he reflected on how his years in uniform had changed him.

"I became very desensitized. You know, callous, angry, hateful," said Rhetts, 45, now a police chaplain. "I didn't see it then, but I see it now. I became more aggressive in defending my life."

Officers such as Rhetts represent a mystery and a challenge for police administrators. In the Los Angeles Police Department, they make up a tiny fraternity who have used deadly force much more often than their colleagues, a Times investigation found.