Whether Tueller intended it to, the concept that’s known as the 21-foot rule or the “Tueller Drill” has taken a strong hold in American policing. “Or someone inside of 21 feet, you’re justified in shooting.” Should the 21-foot rule be taught? “I have heard trainers use that bastardized term, ‘21-foot rule,’ to actually say that, well if you shoot someone further than 21 feet away, you could be charged with homicide,” Tueller said in the YouTube video. Tueller, who declined an interview request, has also repeatedly said through the years that he never intended his experiment to be incorporated into police training and used in courtrooms to justify shootings. This Utah Case Fuels a Debate That Frustrates Police. The article never proposed a hard-and-fast rule, but it stuck. “At what distance does this adversary enter your Danger Zone and become a lethal threat to you?” “Let’s consider what might be called the ‘Danger Zone’ if you are confronted by an adversary armed with an edged or blunt weapon,” he wrote. Tueller published an article in SWAT magazine detailing his findings.ĭennis Tueller’s original article for 1984 SWAT magazine, “How Close is Too Close?” is now published online by a training and consultation corporation. We came to realize that if all you do is stand there and wait for the attacker to come, and you draw and shoot, they can be on top of you before your bullet can take effect.”
Because we thought we were doing pretty well being able to draw and shoot and engage a target at 7 yards in 1½ to 2 seconds. “It was pretty consistent,” Tueller said. They did it over and over, with various role players. Read more: Is the Fear Factor Overblown in Police Shootings? The attacker would run toward the officer, and they would time how long it would take to reach him. Another was the officer about to be attacked. So Tueller assigned one officer to play the role of the aggressor. “I realized that I didn’t have a good answer for that.” “Essentially, they were asking how close is too close?” Tueller said in a 2018 YouTube video copyrighted by the Utah Attorney General’s Office.
Dennis Tueller was a sergeant then and was out on the shooting range with officers, practicing drawing and firing their weapons.Ī new officer posed a question: When would he be justified in shooting someone coming at him with a knife? State officials who teach new officers say it’s not part of the official curriculum, though it is mentioned in training sessions.Įven with its prominence in policing culture, the Salt Lake City lawman behind it all said it was never meant to be a rigid rule.
That’s nearly 20% of the 37 cases during that time frame when someone had a knife when a Utah officer fired.
In two others, tenets of the rule were referenced - such as specifying someone’s distance was within 21 feet - though it wasn’t outright mentioned by name. The 21-foot-rule has been cited directly by lawyers or police to justify shootings in five cases in Utah over the past 16 years, according to a Salt Lake Tribune database, expanded with the help of FRONTLINE. Yet, new police officers still hear about it. And some national policing leaders argue it shouldn’t be taught to cadets anymore. It’s been called outdated, simplistic, even dangerous. It’s called the “21-foot rule,” and it means that someone with a knife running toward police, could cover about 21 feet before officers unholster their gun and fire.īut this standard training technique, which got its start in Salt Lake City, is now controversial. Prosecutors, including in Utah, point to it when deciding if a police shooting was legal. Officers use it to explain why they shot at someone. It’s taught to police across the country.
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