Recommended Police Use of Force Articles: Mid June 2009

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.

Information and Analysis about The Oakland Tragedy

Dean Scoville has done the best analysis I have seen so far about this incident in What Can be Learned from the Oakland Tragedy: Analyzing the events that left four officers dead is painful, but asking questions can help other officers come home alive. He follows it up with a great article discussing the difficulty of researching it in The Challenge of Analyzing a Tragedy While While We’re Still Grieving.

A board of inquiry has recently been assembled to conduct a complete review of the incident. The board is led by Oakland PD Captain Benson Fairow and will include force experts from across the state and nation.

Recovering from the Oakland Tragedy continues to be a painful process for the Oakland Police Department. The Oakland SWAT team just recently resumed duties after standing down for several months. There has been some controversy about the status of Captain Ed Tracey’s role as commander of the SWAT team and whether the team has confidence in his leadership. He addresses that in this press conference video.

Finally, Robert O’Brien wrote an article called Aftershock: Two California Departments Still Reeling from Highly Publicized Officer Deaths that discusses the Oakland Tragedy and an incident that occurred to the Eureka SWAT team where officers were later indicted.

Use of Force Truths by Mark Dunston

This link goes to 6 minute video on Police One TV. In the video Dunston gives some good tips about common use of force mistakes made by police offices. He also dispels some commonly believed myths about use of force such as the one below.

No weapon or technique you have at your disposal in law enforcement has ever been banned by the Supreme Court.

“Electronic control device safe”: Can you trust the label? by Officer Chris Myers, Forensic Scientist Rick Wyant, and Officer Tom Burns

One interesting finding during our testing is that we firmly dispelled common myths often heard in law enforcement circles: water based sprays are TASER safe, and cans marked ‘Non-flammable’ are TASER safe.

Most police departments already deploy OC with officers so when they start deploying TASERs too the department needs to reevaluate the type of OC spray they are carrying. This research tested many commonly used OC sprays to see which ones a TASER will ignite.

Dry Fire Practice by TGace

The things worth believing in is still one of my favorite police blogs. In this article, TGace focuses on one of the basic drills in firearms training, dry firing. The article also contains a video demonstrating the techniques he describes.

For no expense you can practice almost every aspect of weaponcraft minus actually hitting a target. Without spending a cent on ammunition you can hone your draw stroke and work on trigger control. You can practice target transitions, weapon transitions, magazine changes, malfunction drills, movement, impact drills and myriad other skills that you would have a difficult time practicing “live” on most commercial ranges.

Training Weapons for various purposes by Frank Borelli

Borelli does a great job explaining the role of different training weapons within a comprehensive firearms training program. One big problem of course is that many departments don’t have a comprehensive firearms training program, they have a marksmanship training program that only uses qualification to measure their skills. If that describes your department, this article is not a bad place to start to expand the depth and effectiveness of your program.

Patrol Rifle Deployment Plan by Mark Dunston

This link goes to Police One TV and shows a 6 1/2 minute video with Deputy Chief Mark Dunston. Dunston differentiates the difference between just giving a rifle to a patrol officer and have a program to effectively deploy patrol rifles for actual incidents.

To access this link you will need a Police One logon for restricted users.

Cognitive thinking and the tactical warrior by Sgt. Glenn French

Creating training with realism is the primary factor that will help build better cognitive thinking skills so when SWAT cops are subjected to actual combat they will feel that they’ve already been there and been exposed to that environment.

Sgt. French gives several suggestions to accomplish this goal.

Starting at Square 1 by Brian Willis

Trainers are also frustrated by the fact that in-service officers come with ‘an attitude’ to mandated training. The reality is that trainers also very often show up with an ‘attitude’ at in-service training. Now we justify our attitude by blaming the officers attitudes however, two groups in the same room with attitudes will very rarely ever result in a quality training session.

Willis follows with three questions to ask ourselves as trainers and five tips for trainers to overcome the feeling of starting over with students rather than building on previously learned skills.

Shooting from a boat by Michael Rayburn

I have never shot from a boat and don’t anticipate doing so in my career. However, for those that work in that environment I think it is an important skill set. Rayburn goes through the steps of how to do it while the boat is pitching and rolling.

Trainers Make the Simulator by John Wills

Wills discusses some advantages of electronic simulators and emphasizes the importance of the trainer to properly make the simulator an effective tool.

Sun Tzu for 21st century cops by Lt. Dan Marcou

I’m a fan of Sun Tzu. His work provides the basis for many strategic masters such as John Boyd. In this article Marcou takes some of Sun Tzu’s themes and applies them to modern policing.

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