Firing accurately in a stressful situation is harder than it sounds, but it is one of the cornerstones of being a good police officer.
Philippine National Police chief Director General Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa has ordered all PNP members to undergo marksmanship training, and those who fail will have to give up their service firearms to prevent collateral damage.
“I will disarm those who will fail. They are not qualified to hold firearms because they are not good shooters. They are not proficient,” he said in a Philippine Star report.
Bato said that on a scale of 1 to 10, the current average marksmanship in the PNP is only 6 to 7.5.
The PNP Chief added that police officers who are good at shooting would be tapped to “share their ability, skills, knowledge in shooting to improve the level of competency in marksmanship of policemen.”
He also instructed the Directorate for Human Resources and Doctrine Development to revive the gun proficiency training and test.
Tests would be conducted by the end of third quarter to determine the passing average.
Bato, who plays an important role in the Duterte administration’s war against drugs, clarified that improving marksmanship does not equate to shooting drug pushers dead.
“I have to make sure that my men are always alive after every encounter… but it doesn’t mean you have to kill all the suspects. That is not my order,” Dela Rosa said.
Bato said that if police officers have a better aim, criminals would not engage them in a gunfire.
