Jeff Cooper called him 'Cirillo the Great'. Massad Ayoob says he is one of the great law enforcement gun-fighters of our time. Few firearms instructors, if any, can match his cumulative street combat experience.
As a member of the New York City Stake-Out Squad (1968-1973) Jim Cirillo's only job was to confront the most hardened and dangerous armed criminals in the city. During this time he was involved in seventeen shootouts and more armed confrontations than can be counted. During the years following his retirement from the NYPD Cirillo worked as a firearms instructor for the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center from 1976-1991. This vast experience comes through in the writings and instructional video Jim has produced.
IIRC he and at least one of his stakeout guys would be as prepared for a threat as possible... they'd pose as workers in a high risk store (like a liquor store) because they were getting hit BIG around the time/area.
It was real hairy stuff because they'd be confronted with an armed robber and if the bad guy didn't IMMEDIATELY drop his weapon he'd be lit up on the spot. The vast majority of them dropped... I think 17 of them didn't and that's where the figure came from.
This was told to me by someone who knew him, but also trolled here for a short time (gwent i think was his name) before he was banned. Google "gunkid" or John Melvin Davis and you'll see... so it could have been BS.