In suburban Cook County, police officers sometimes make life or death decisions under lax and unenforced use of force policies, according to a review of 113 police shootings there since 2005.

The WBEZ and Better Government Association review found that many of the police departments used policies with boilerplate language downloaded from companies that act as a sort of cop version of LegalZoom. These policies are supposed to provide officers guidance on how to handle different situations — and when it’s appropriate to use physical force.

BGA investigator and data coordinator Jared Rutecki spoke with WBEZ’s Melba Lara about those companies and what else the investigation uncovered.