G7.1.4 Firearms and Moving Vehicles
Chapter: Chapter 07: Use of Force
Sub-Chapter: 7.1 - Use of Force
Effective Date: 09/23/2016
Revised Date: 06/18/2024
Rescinds: G7.1.4 – 6/21/2022
Purpose
To provide the Indiana University Police Department (IUPD) with guidance surrounding firing a firearm at or from a moving vehicle.
General Order
IUPD officers are prohibited from discharging a firearm at or from a moving vehicle unless deadly force is considered necessary and objectively reasonable given the totality of the circumstances.
Firearms and Moving Vehicles
Discharging a firearm at or from a moving vehicle often presents an unacceptable risk to innocent bystanders and officers. Should the driver be wounded or killed by shots, the vehicle might continue under its own power or momentum, creating another hazard, including proceeding out of control and becoming a serious threat to anyone in the area.
Discharging a weapon accurately from a moving vehicle is extremely difficult and unlikely to successfully stop a threat.
Officers will not discharge a firearm at a moving vehicle except under the following circumstances:
- a person in the vehicle is imminently threatening the officer or another person with deadly force by means other than the vehicle (7.1.4 a); or
- the vehicle is operated in a manner deliberately intended to strike an officer or another person, and all other reasonable means of defense have been exhausted, including moving out of the path of the vehicle (7.1.4 b).
Officers will not place themselves in front of a moving vehicle to justify the use of deadly force. The officer’s first option should be to move safely out of the path of the moving vehicle. A moving vehicle alone will not presumptively constitute a threat that justifies an officer’s use of deadly force.
Officers must weigh the need to use deadly force in these situations against the potential harm to bystanders that may result from the use of force.