21 May 02

>From an LEO friend in the UK on their state of training:

"There are two areas where we are currently woefully lacking here in the UK:

LESS LETHAL. After an uphill battle, we now finally have 37mm baton launchers, and M26 Tasers are coming on stream this summer. However, we have no experience on how to use this stuff, as policies and training have not kept up. Management is always anxious to get new gadgets, but their enthusiasm in rarely carries over into training

RESPONSE TO ACTIVE SHOOTERS. We are still at the pre-Columbine stage here, despite Dunblane, Hungerford and dozens of other incidents you'll probably not hear of. No one here wants to face this issue."

/John