Police Marksmanship: How do you stack up?
An overview with data demonstrating how well police officers can shoot.
Click to watch the video:
Louie Tirona has been a police officer for over 27 years, is an avid competitive shooter, an International Defensive Pistol Association (IDPA) Master classified shooter, and instructor for Tactical Performance Center. He’s also in charge of firearm training for his department and decided to use the IDPA 5X5 classifier with all members (about 200 sworn officers) with everyone using their duty holsters and belts (Safariland ALS). These officers receive far better training than normal given Tirona’s skill and his department’s willingness to allow him autonomy. These officers also enjoy great leeway regarding handgun model and caliber, with officers using a variety of SIG, Glock, and S&W handguns per their personal choice. Quite a few of these officers carry single stack 1911s and double stack 2011s and some officers use slide mounted dot sights, particularly those on the department’s SWAT team.
For simplicity, Tirona had everyone use the CDP (Custom Defensive Pistol) 5x5 classifier times with all of the participants.
The 5x5 Classifier course of fire is comprised of four strings of fire, all shot at 10 yards on an official IDPA target using current IDPA scoring. All strings of fire begin with hands at sides. A shooting timer is used to measure the shooter’s time to complete each string of fire. On the first string, the shooter draws and fires five rounds to the chest of the target. The second string is the same as string #1 but is fired with the strong/primary hand only. The third string begins with the gun holstered and loaded with only five rounds. The shooter draws and fires five rounds to the chest of the target, conducts a slide-lock reload and fires five additional rounds to the chest. The fourth and final string consists of firing four rounds to the chest and one to the head.
Score is the total elapsed time for four strings (25 shots total), with one second added for each point dropped: -0 adds no penalty time, -1 adds 1 second, -3 adds three seconds, and a complete miss adds 5 seconds.
Police Results
So, how did they do? And how did they compare to competitive shooters? Here’s the overall breakdown (in percentage of all 200 participants) of the police officer’s scoring ranges of classifications. Note, there is no bottom limit to Novice, which is defined as any score low enough (too slow) to make the Marksman cut-off.
Master: 0.5 % (19.18 seconds or less) - (Tirona)
Expert: 0.5 % (19.19 to 24.09 seconds) - (Tirona’s partner)
Sharpshooter: 8.8 % (24.10 to 29.92)
Marksman: 24.2 % (29.93 to 37.63)
Novice: 66.0 % (37.64 or greater)
Tirona also had a fellow police officer do this for his department which lacks a trainer of Tirona’s caliber. The results were:
Marksman: 27.3 %
Novice: 72.7 %
Nobody scored above Marksman
Finally, Tirona had a SWAT commander in a different department try this course with only the Emergency Response Team/SWAT members receiving more training than patrol officers. The results with the SWAT-only group were:
Expert: 0.6 %
Sharpshooter: 13.3 %
Marksman: 46.7 %
Novice: 33.3 %
To put this in perspective, the target at 10 yards has an eight-inch center (-0). Allowing 3 seconds for each presentation from the holster, 3 seconds for the reload, 1 second per shot for two hands, and 1.5 seconds per shot one hand will beat the Novice cut-off and make Marksman.
Competition Shooter Comparison
How does this compare to IDPA hobby and sport shooters? Some Event Directors have tallied the percentage of classifications for shooters attending their matches. An approximate consensus of their results:
Master: 3-5%
Expert: 11-14%
Sharpshooter: 27-29%
Marksman: 32-35%
Novice: 22-24%
Here’s the percentage breakdown of IDPA members overall, using SSP (Stock Service Pistol) as the base reference as it has the most participants:
Master: 4%
Expert: 11.3%
Sharpshooter: 27.3%
Marksman: 33.8%
Novice: 23.5%
The first time I shot to obtain a carry permit, I was genuinely nervous about the process because we had to shoot “the same course as the state police.” At the time I had shot a handful of IPSC matches with a friend, which essentially was the entirety of my firearms “training” at that point. I passed with flying colors, and was downright shocked that the proficiency standards were so abysmally low. That was 20 years ago, and if anything, the standards have probably gotten worse.
I would also like to say that I REALLY appreciate how you present your information, cite your sources, and refrain from ridiculously inflammatory hyperbole. Well done, I just became a subscriber.
I’m really concerned that society continues to place our LEO into increasingly dangerous situations without support. Marksmanship is good training. Our LEO need to be trained to de escalate situations, but be Street Kings gunfighter lethal when necessary. Defund the police, BLM, and the like have hurt more than help. Someone has a plan for all of this lawlessness to happen, and it appears to be working!