Every couple of weeks we link to the most recent police use of force articles that caught our attention. Right after the link we post a quote, summarize the article, or discuss our thoughts about it.
Facing a subject schooled in MMA by Tony Blauer
Tony has plenty of experience teaching both police officers and MMA fighters so this article comes from a man of experience. To access this link you will need a Police One logon for restricted users.
A street fight is a street fight not a sport fight, and anyone can be incredibly dangerous.
Pain Innoculation Training?: The ability to fight through pain is critical to winning a violent encounter by Richard Nance
Police officers should get hit during defensive tactics training.
That is a controversial statement for many police defensive tactics programs because of injuries and even deaths like Texas DPS recruit Jimmy Ray Carty in April 2006. Nance spends the rest of the article backing it up. I agree that officers need to take hits during training. Not so much that they get injured or killed, but enough to try and bridge some of the gap between the naivety of civilian life and the reality of a fight with a hard core bad guy.
Open if…: Ease the transition through a special file for your survivors by Jeff Baker
Preparing for a deadly force encounter is not complete if you don’t get your legal and family affairs in order. Baker walks you through a simple, effective process. In my opinion, police administrators should help facilitate this process. If you ever lose an officer in the line of duty you will be extremely glad you did and unfortunately most officers do not take enough responsibility in this area.
Close Quarter Core Skills: Up Close & Personal Requires Unique Skills by Ralph Mroz
Mroz discusses the differences between real life encounters and firearms training drills. He finishes the article with three drills to build skills for realistic situations: no time to draw, shooting after falling, and hooded drills for surprise situations.
Tips for “keeping it together” after a bad call and More tips for “keeping it together” after a bad call by Scott Buhrmaster
As Matt talks about in Honey, I’ve just involved in a shooting, communicating with your spouse after being involved in a shooting or traumatic event can be difficult. Those calls take emotional tolls on officers and their families. Buhrmaster gives some good tips to help families through those events. Emotional Survival for Law Enforcement
Mental Conditioning for Self Defense by Mostly Genius
Many of the “Survivor Mindset” and “Warrior Mindset” proponents talk about mental attributes as if they were bolt-on parts and once fully kitted out you will be ready. I would argue that it is a little more complicated than that.
What I like about Mostly Genius’s writing on his blog is how practical and action oriented it is. This article delivers more of the same.
The Hazards of “Low Risk” Calls by Dean Scoville
It is a cliche in policing that there is no such thing as a routine call or traffic stop. The reality is that most calls and traffic stops are routine and low risk which lulls us into a false sense of security. Our attention wanes from the monotony and that is when officers are susceptible to getting hurt. As Scoville points out in this article, during high risk calls we are more alert and have a different mindset than the routine low risk calls.
The Contradiction of Training, Pt 1: Telling them one thing, and teaching another by Ross Torquato
I’m not against qualifying, but I think we should spend the limited time and resources we do have on training. Most qualification courses teach you to stand still and shoot at a paper target without inducing any type of stress.
I agree with his thoughts. Most qualification courses were developed 20 to 30 years ago and focus only on basic marksmanship. It is time to evolve.
Recognizing the Signs and Signals of Crime and Danger by Fred Leland
Lt. Fred Leland is an avid believer of John Boyd’s theories and writes about them in his blog. This article discusses using Boyd’s OODA cycle to recognize the signs of danger early enough to control a situation and keeping it from escalating to violence.
Firearms: Mindset Matters by Dave Spaulding
Many police administrators will flinch at the thought of their officers being trained to be “combative,” but I argue that this is essential to our primary mission.
Selecting a Concealed Carry System by David Narkevicius
Comprehensive article about getting quality equipment to carry a concealed handgun.
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