Compared to the number of contacts police officers have with civilians, police-civilian shootings are infrequent , although their frequency varies considerably among neighborhoods in the same city. The National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) reports that the number of persons killed by police ranges from a low of 184 in 1962 to a high of 409 in 1971. Police, FBI, and coroners' reports, as well as news clippings, are helpful sources of data, although they often limit their observations to fatal shootings of civilians by police. Most studies indicate that police shootings typically involve an on-duty, uniformed, white, male officer and an armed, black, male civilian between the ages of 17 and 30 years. Most police shootings occur at night in a 'public' location within a 'high-crime' precinct, in connection with a suspected armed robbery or a 'man with a gun' call. The Police Foundation hypothesizes that blacks are shot disproportionately because, as a large segment of the unemployed class spending more time on the streets, they are involved in confrontations with police more often than whites. The substantial number of civilians shot by police while engaging in nonviolent acts (such as flight to avoid arrest) may be due to lax police guidelines on the use of deadly force. Studies have also found that the risk that officers will be shot responding to domestic disturbances is lower than previously thought, that the risk of off-duty or plainclothes officers being shot by civilians is higher, and that most police are shot by robbers fleeing the scene of a crime. Strategies for reducing police shootings advocated in the literature concern initiatives by police administrators or legislators, such as changes in policy development, personnel practices, and weapons training. The article notes that more data are needed on police-civilian encounters that were resolved without shots being fired. Methodological problems in the research are noted; tables and about 100 references are included.