As I discussed in The OODA Loop: A simple concept for modern combat strategy, there are two ways to take the offense away from our opponent. One is to overtake him in the cycle by being faster. I discussed common tactics for that strategy in How to zip through the OODA Loop. The second method is to slow your opponent down. This article discusses tactics for that strategy.
Keep them from seeing you
If the suspect doesn’t detect your presence, you have a huge advantage. You can get more info, plan, and coordinate your actions. Given enough time, you can evaluate several plans and use one that requires some preparation as opposed to one that requires instant reaction.
At night during in progress calls, patrol officers in my area routinely “black out” their squad car by turning off their headlights, killing the brake lights with a special switch, and turning the police radio down really low. They stop a distance away from the call and approach on foot in the shadows. When they observe suspects, they don’t reveal themselves, but quietly tell other responding units where to go and coordinate a group response. Ideally, the first officer is the one that triggers the plan into action but sometimes the officers get discovered and they have to go with the resources at hand, but now you have additional units already on the way.
Blend in
Similar to keeping them from seeing you, this tactic lets them observe you but not recognize you as a threat, allowing you to get in a good position. A simple example is posing as an employee of the motel when knocking on a room door. An article by Scott Buhrmaster gives some good ideas for this tactic. (Note: you will need a Police One secure area logon to access this article. Get one here.)
Care should be taken to not abuse this tactic. In Newport, some officers recently disguised themselves as firefighters to capture a violent felon and caused some controversy.
Good positioning
During one on one encounters, good positioning provides enough time to react to an attack. For street interviews this means staying far enough away to keep from being sucker punched. On traffic stops it means keeping the suspect in his vehicle so a barrier (car door) restricts his ability to hit or stab you easily. Many officers approach from the passenger side which is even more effective. With high risk suspects, that means using cover, facing them away from you, and walking them back to you.
Positioning is about good habits. When you build good habits, they can save your life by giving you the little edge you might need to overcome someone who is skilled and tries to hurt you.
Multiple targets
SWAT typically uses this tactic when attacking a barricaded suspect. They enter the location from several different places or at least they enter a room that contains a suspect. They spread to a 90 degree angle from the suspect when they get through the doorway. They immediately close on him. This tactic creates an overwhelming display of force that motivates the suspect to submit. However, if the suspect doesn’t submit the multiple targets the officers present forces him to decide who to attack first. That extra decision slows him down and gives the time advantage to the officers. If the suspect doesn’t quickly decide who to attack, the officers should be on top of him.
Update: Glenn French pointed out some problems with the statements I marked out. His thoughts: “The Tactic of splitting your adversaries attention upon entry is used for Hostage Rescue and shouldn’t be used for a Barricaded gunman. From my experience the stealth to contact tactic is used for Barricaded gunman. I see no reason to do a dynamic entry for a barricaded gunman in most cases. Swat usually waits these guys out until they surrender or commit suicide. If an entry must be made a slow and deliberate tactic is best.” I agree and wanted to clarify that I’m not advocating entry on a barricaded suspect but trying to illustrate the benefits of multiple targets to slow down the mental processes of a suspect.
Disorient them
The classic version of this is the flashbang. When you throw one in a room the effects of the concussion and flash disorient the suspect and allow the officers to enter and gain control of the room before the suspect can orient himself and figure out what is going on.
Another version involves police K9. Suspects that are hiding or fleeing from officers are trying to formulate a plan to escape or resist. They often expect to be confronted with officers and make their plans relative to people. When a police dog that is searching for them confronts them instead, their plan becomes useless and they have to re-orient to the new situation of a police dog attacking them. While they are trying to work out their new situation officers should be able to move into position to control and cuff them.
Deceive them
Some officers have the silver tongue and can talk a suspect into cuffs. Other officers find themselves at a disadvantage and use deception to buy time and get more officers to assist.
An example of this is an officer working drug interdiction on the highway. This officer was alone in a rural area without an immediate backup. He stopped a vehicle with several suspects in it and just found their load of dope in the car. The officer felt the tension and fear coming from the suspects when he got close to their dope. The suspects became more aggressive and their behavior led the officer to believe they would resist and knew he could be overwhelmed by them. Instead of confronting them and probably having to shoot them to overcome their attack, he used deception. He acted like he had not seen the dope and told them that he was going to let them go with a warning for the traffic violation. When they drove off, he followed them down the highway while radioing for additional units. When they had several more squad cars with him, he stopped the vehicle again and did a felony stop to take them into custody.
Other tactics or ideas
These are only some ways to slow down your opponent. If you think of some other ideas tactics, feel free to use the comments of this article to share your thoughts.
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This is a great article and explains the concept of the Boyd Cycle and what Boyd called the strategic game of interactaction and issolation. Which in my understanding of this concept interaction and issolation is when we use the type sof tactics stated above and others as the situation dictates we leave our adversary with the mindset of he does not know what we are doing. He has questions about whats going on which in turn causes him to second guess himself, which leads to confusion or disorientation, opening opportunities we can then exploit.
It also shows that when we apply (APPLY!) what we have learned we can get inside our adversaries mind and gain a clear advantage by exploiting our adversaries weaknesses with our strengths and apply the the applicable tactics through inititiative driven action. No more react mode but initiative driven modes of action through a fine tuned relaxed state of awareness rapid decision making and action be it communication, physical force, or if neccessary deadly force, so we win!
Outstanding article!