NYPD Amends Vehicle Shooting Policy to Cover Terror Attacks

The NYPD has told officers they can open fire on vehicles to prevent a “mass ramming attack” like the terror strike last year in Nice, France, where a truck plowed through a crowd and killed 86 people.

“A ‘vehicle ramming attack’ is the type of extraordinary event that this clause was intended to address. The objectively reasonable use of deadly physical force to terminate a mass casualty terrorist event would be legally justified and within department guidelines,” a directive sent out Monday says, according to the New York Post .

The directive clarified a patrol guide regulation that says officers cannot “discharge their firearms at or from a moving vehicle unless deadly physical force is being used against the member of service or another person.”

The message says vehicle attacks on crowds have “emerged as a frequent and alarming worldwide trend. … inflicting maximum carnage. These events have generated significant media attention.”