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POLICE from the US flew to Scotland for lessons on how to avoid shooting suspects.

American law enforcement chiefs sent senior officers to Police Scotland training centres in a bid to change how they deal with deadly threats.

Forces in the US have been hit by a string of scandals in which unarmed suspects have been shot and killed or seriously injured.

And as politicians order a rethink on how police respond to violent situations, 25 top US cops came to learn tactics used here.

Assistant Chief Constable Bernie Higgins, who led the event, said he was proud they chose Scotland for their fact-finding mission.

The group, who included NYPD and LAPD bosses, visited bases at Tulliallan, Clackmannanshire, and Jackton, near East Kilbride.

Higgins said US police realised they needed a change of approach.

He added: “They wanted to ask us why officers in Scotland don’t shoot people armed with knives or baseball bats.

“There was a recognition that in America, these suspects tend to be shot and they need to do things differently.”

He hosted a four-day event last month where their US counterparts were talked through every aspect of being an officer in Scotland.

Higgins said: “We took them through training procedures from how probationer officers are taught to deal with force to how top-end firearms officers deal with threats.

“They noted the training our firearms officers get is the same as some of the training that their SWAT teams receive.

“We emphasised that the ability to shoot is not as important as an officer’s decision-making and judgment.

“I asked them why is it necessary to shoot someone six times? They seemed to take the point on board.”

There are about 300million firearms in circulation in the US.

Higgins added: “I understand there are more guns in America and that is an issue. But I challenged them over whether someone in America with a knife was more dangerous than someone in Scotland with a knife.”

Delegates heard Scots firearms officers have shot civilians only twice in the last decade.

The event was paid for by the US Police Executive Research Forum, whose director Chuck Wexler visited Scotland last year.

He said the sight of an officer with no gun on his belt hit him “like a ton of bricks”.

Of tactics used by US police, Wexler said: “We must do better.”

Boston police commissioner William Evans asked delegates: “We have so many guns that deadly force, to us, is always there, right?”

But Mike Chitwood, chief in Florida’s Daytona Beach, said: “We in American policing are missing the boat in the respect for human life, altogether.”

Last week, the US Justice Department announced a civil rights investigation into Chicago Police Department after an officer was charged with murder over the fatal shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald.

The killing in October 2014, which was caught on video, sparked protests in the city.