Which reads like a justification for "trained" police officers to be allowed instant panic
It's not so much training as experience.
A rookie police officer is far more likely to panic and make a bad decision than an officer who's been working the streets for ten years.
When you get a man with a gun call for the first time, your adrenaline goes through the roof even before you arrive. If you've been to numerous similar calls, your pulse rate barely moves.
That's true in many high stress professions -- in general veteran soldiers are far superior to recruits. A veteran paramedic goes about his or her job calmly and efficiently, as opposed to someone who's never seen someone bleeding out. Training is vital and helps bridge that gap, but nothing can substitute for experience.
And as far as shootings go, there is certainly a psychological factor involved when multiple officers respond. You may decide to hold off firing, but when the cop next to you starts cranking off rounds, there's a halo effect that encourages you to do the same. Maybe he saw something you didn't. If he's firing away, are you going to stand there watching?
But it's more instinctive than anything else -- gunfire from anywhere provokes more gunfire.
These are not excuses or justifications -- just a window into common psychological responses to stress situations.
