12Oct06

Police Tactical Lessons, from a Friend in the Midwest:

"We conducted a series of Air-Soft drills here with small teams of patrolmen from several, local departments. The theme was 'Violent Crime in P rogress.' We staged an armed robbery, a hostage drama, and a barricaded gunman w/ou t hostages. Participants were not SWAT teams, but plain-vanilla patrolmen an d detectives, thrown together and compelled by circumstance to work as a team . In each scenario, shooting had already started, and there was no opportunity to wait on the arrival of a SWAT Team. We wanted to see to wha t degree our guys could quickly organize themselves and then go in after the bad guy(s) with scant information and no time for detailed planning. We looked for (1 ) sound tactics, (2) credible teamwork, (3) competent gun-handling, (4) skill ful negotiation, (5) constant objectivity, and (6) accomplished accuracy.

I played the role of one of the suspects. Our students, of course, made mistakes, but there was no lack of enthusiasm and ability to learn lessons quickly.

Here is what I noted from my perspective:

Presence of entry officers was often easy to discern, as many shotgun and carbine barrels and muzzles could be seen protruding from around corners, be fore the officer holding the weapon was anywhere near ready to engage threats on

the other side. I first noticed the muzzle poking out from a corner. Tha t alerted me to the fact that an officer was there and that he planned to ent er the room or, at least, pie the corner. When they attempted the later, many

needlessly exposed (1) elbows, (2) knees, and (3) feet. I shot all three many times, and the officers thus struck were sent stumbling backwards, out of action for the balance of the drill. Conversely, savvy officers (mostly th ose with military training) exposed precious little of themselves when they pie d corners, making shooting any part of them extremely difficult.

When close to a corner, I was also able to forcibly disarm several officers , as they, once again, poked their pistols and carbines around corners. I just grabbed the gun and pulled! Most officers let go. Those who hung on were pulled off balance and came stumbling forward, usually falling, face-first,

onto the floor. Again, leading with your gun carries with it all kinds of (mostly needless) risk.

Several of our officers were shot in the back by their own partners! This unhappy blunder was, of course, the direct result of poor gun handling (fingers on triggers) and poor muzzle control (muzzles up, instead of down) . The astonished shooters didn't realize how such bad habits can easily result in

unintentional casualties. Through painful embarrassment, they learned thei r lesson!

Through victory and frustration, everyone took their lessons well, and I am

persuaded that they all benefited greatly. Participants were there, becaus e they wanted to be there. My concern is for all the officers who weren't there and probably never will be!"

Comment: This kind of training needs to be made available to all officers.

Recent events show the need to be obvious!

/John