Trending Topics

IDing yourself as LEO to an on-duty officer

Let’s get one thing out on the table right up front: If you’re off duty and end up responding to an incident, your only truly safe course of action when the uniformed officer shows up is to quickly and completely comply with that cop’s commands. Yeah, it goes against your nature to deck your weapon and prone yourself out on command, but your life depends on your compliance.

Okay, this is more of an open-ended question for discussion in the comments area below than it is a “tip” to tuck away in the back of your head (in reality, the paragraph above IS today’s tactical tip). While attending the National Tactical Officers’ Association annual meeting in Richmond (Va.) earlier this week, I got to discussing with a couple of guys the problems associated with self-identification (to arriving uniformed officers) during an incident to which you’re responding while off duty.

A good argument can be made that when an incident occurs near you while off duty, the best thing you can do at times is to simply become the “World’s Best Witness.” But what if that’s not an option? What if you’re thrust right into the violence...

You’ve got your CCW holster full of “Surprise, a__hole!” but when the uniforms show up your appearance is that of a guy with a gun and a good haircut.

A couple years ago someone invented a “sash” (a.k.a. “The Don’t Shoot Me Banner”) that surfaced on a number of Internet forums, and has since seemed to vanish. There have been colored arm-bands and a variety of other little gimmicks along these lines. Two relatively obvious issues come to mind:

1.) Would someone who has shown themselves to not be prone to carrying their credentials off duty be inclined to carry a “sash” instead? Something tells me ‘no’ on that one.
2.) Given the fact that so many police products (and spoofs of same) are available through Internet vendors, what are the odds such a thing becomes a diversionary tactic for the bad guys? Pretty good, I’d imagine.

So, here’s my question to the group. Have you developed any sort of verbal or visual signal to communicate to a uniformed cop your LE status? Is such a thing even practical? At NTOA this week I talked with a couple of guys on this topic for easily ten minutes and we never really came up with a viable solution (perhaps because one doesn’t exist!) other than the abovementioned, time-tested-and-street-proven practice of immediate and complete compliance with the uniformed officer’s commands.

Let’s open it up for discussion. Post your thoughts in the comments area below or send me an email. Who knows what we might learn.

As always, stay safe my friends.

Doug Wyllie writes police training content on a wide range of topics and trends affecting the law enforcement community. Doug was a co-founder of the Policing Matters podcast and a longtime co-host of the program.