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.
Heroics or recklessness? You be the judge by Charles Remsberg
Remsberg explores the difficult aspect of critiquing a deadly force situation where an officer did not shoot but resolved the incident with pepper spray. No one was injured including the suspect. Officers within the department appeared divided whether the officer acted appropriately or needlessly put himself and other officers at risk. Remsberg does a good job exploring the complex issues involved in this situation.
To access this link you will need a Police One logon for restricted users.
“If that confrontation was a scenario in training, I think most officers would have shot that suspect,” he speculates. “But in training, they know they’re not going to face an IA investigation, they’re not going to get sued, they’re not going to get blasted in the media, they’re not going to be impotent from stress for three months.”
Use of Force and What’s Important Now Webcast by Brian Willis
I am a fan of exploring new methods of teaching and passing information on. This webcast is a great example of that. The webcast was interactive and allowed officers to submit questions. Brian answered several of them during the presentation and posted written replies to those questions he didn’t initially have time to answer.
Shooting Straight in the Dark by William Murphy
Murphy describes four techniques to be effective in low light combat: the FBI technique, Harries technique, the neck indexing technique, and the Surefire technique. The article also gives some good tips for fighting in the dark.
There are several reasons to use a flashlight in police operations: to observe and detect, to eliminate anonymity, to identify threats, and to illuminate and control. The proper use of the flashlight lets you see danger before it can affect you and it can send the goblins waiting in the dark running away.
Weapon Retention on the Ground by Roy Harris and Mike Siegfried
With the popularity of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), attacking criminals are more likely to take officers to the ground. This article gives three simple principles and training methods to retain your weapon while on the ground.
If you unexpectedly end up on the ground, you will be forced to make aggressive efforts to retain your firearm. Unfortunately, many law enforcement trainers focus on standing weapon retention techniques, which creates a training gap that leaves officers vulnerable when they find themselves in a ground fight.
Most popular articles by Fred Leland of LESC
Fred writes the LESC blog, which is one of my favorite sources for information about situational awareness, the OODA loop, John Boyd’s concepts, and next generation warfare. In this post he links to some of his best articles. It is a great place to introduce yourself to his writing.
All the articles are centered on developing situational awareness and decision making under pressure, as well as create and nurture the strategic and tactical mindset that is essential in detecting, preventing and resolving conflict and violence, be it on patrol, the street, a university or campus, hospital, place of worship, school or any other environment.
Can You Save Your Own Life? by Phil of Phil’s Fitness Journal
Phil’s Fitness Journal is a newly discovered police blog. Phil writes about practical, effective workouts and fitness for warriors. He also writes about warrior philosophy and reposts some excellent warrior articles from other websites.
In this article he reposts an article by Matt Furey that gives some practical fitness standards for a man to effectively save himself in an emergency.
Highly Controversial Training Video by Steve at the Firearms Blog
Steve shows a controversial firearms training video that made the rounds on several forums. In the video an instructor for Tactical Response is downrange by the targets taking pictures during their live fire training. James Yeager, the owner of Tactical Response, posted a video on YouTube responding to the controversy surrounding the downrange instructor.
Firearm Modifications and More About Gun Modifications by Mostly Genius
Mostly Genius lists some good reasons why you should not trick out your gun. His first post generates some discussion on the Walls of the City website so he follows it up with a second post.
I have seen a lot of guns with a lot of gadgets over the years and I have seen very few trick guns that both work reliably AND that the owner can operate. In generally I find most accessories and customizations to be technical solutions to training problems. Personally I assign far more cool points to those that can quickly and efficiently hit the target than those that have latest and greatest gizmo.
The Power of a Forearm Fuse (Video) by Lt. Kevin Dillon
A forearm fuse is used to pin an arm of a suspect that has a weapon. Kevin does a excellent job of demonstrating the power and simplicity of this movement in the video. He clearly explains how to do the technique and then uses a smaller person performing the forearm fuse on a larger person to demonstrate its effectiveness.
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Patrol Rifles: Deployment of personally owned firearms by Jeff Chudwin
Jeff Chudwin has been a tireless advocate for patrol rifles. Allowing officers to purchase their own rifle overcomes the biggest obstacle for departments to deploy them which is their cost. Jeff discusses some issues and myths with personally owned rifles and gives a sample policy at the end.
An officer or deputy calls or writes to say that his chief or sheriff has been informed that there’s a “liability” issue associated with allowing personally owned rifles or carbines to be used on duty. The officer asks for confirmation. My response : No one has yet been able to demonstrate to me that this legal myth has any valid basis. I find nothing in the law, either by statute or case law, that would support this belief.
New study links multi-tasking capacity to good or bad shooting decisions by Force Science
Force Science newsletter that discusses a study revealing officers who have a greater capacity for multi-tasking are less likely to make errors in shooting decisions.
The second part of the newsletter gives an update on active killer statistics by Ron Borsch. Ron recently wrote a two part series (part 1 and part 2) for Spartan Cops about Solo Officer Entries.
What you and your department can learn from shooting survivors and Lessons learned: Practical tips for overcoming the challenges of an OIS by Force Science
Two Force Science newsletters that discuss 7 considerations for departments to help surviving officers after they’ve taken a human life and 7 responsibilities you have for helping yourself if you are involved in a deadly force situation.
Properly identify “the victim.” And it’s not the suspect lying dead in a pool of blood. Unless there’s compelling evidence to the contrary, the true victim in an OIS is the officer who’s been assaulted and forced to defend his life against an offender’s threatening behavior.
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The late COL John Boyd said in his discourse on winning and losing “Machines don’t fight wars. Terrain doesn’t fight wars. Humans fight wars. You must get into the minds of humans. That’s where the battles are won.” The writings, videos and posting on your site are outstanding and will help cops prepare in the mental, moral and physical realms of conflict. This is what Boyd is getting at in the quote above, develop in all the demensions of conflcit then and only then are we truely prepeared. Obviously this takes training that is ongoing throughout a life time. Learning never stops and is always continuing.
Your efforts at Spartan Cops to help cops better prepare themselves for the conventional, unconventional and emerging threats they face is is to be commended. We need more folks willing to get this valuable information out to the frontline and to leadership in our ranks so we are better prepared.
Thanks for the work you folks are doing and thank you for posting my writings as well.
Stay oriented!
Fred