Editor’s Note: This week’s PoliceOne First Person essay is from PoliceOne Member Kevin Kimsey, who has posted a number of Monday Member Tactical Tips on the site and with this essay offers his first effort in the “longer format” type of Member Contribution. PoliceOne “First Person” essays, our Members and Columnists candidly share their own unique view of the world. This is a platform from which individual officers can share their own personal insights on issues confronting cops today, as well as opinions, observations, and advice on living life behind the thin blue line. If you want to share your own perspective with other P1 Members, simply send us an e-mail with your story.
By J. Kevin Kimsey
Police1 Member
A couple of weeks ago, Police1 Editor Doug Wyllie wrote about “Below 100” — an inspiring initiative with the goal of bringing the line-of-duty deaths in each year to fewer than 100 — and I wanted to briefly share my own thoughts on the subject.
Yes, I believe that this goal is very achievable, but it is extremely important that the leaders and trainers get the word out and inspire the “line officer” and all subordinates to do the five simple things that will help us meet that goal.
• Wear your belt
• Wear your vest
• Watch your speed
• Think WIN: What’s Important Now?
• Remember: Complacency Kills!
To me, the single best way to lead is by example! If an Officer always sees his or her supervisor wearing their vest, wearing their seatbelt, driving the appropriate speeds, etc. then the Officer is much more likely to do these things!
On another level, if a subordinate always sees that his commanding officers not only attend, but participate in the same or similar “high-liability topic” training that they do (such as Use of Force, Deadly Force, etc.) then the officer will have a much better example to strive for or inspiration in these lifesaving areas.
Now, I do not pretend to have all of the solutions to these problems, but in a vast majority of departments, the commanding officers are generally seen in office attire, with no vest, no handcuffs, and in some cases...NO WEAPON!
These examples would definitely be the opposite of good!
While we are on the “training” subject, let’s talk about another area of great concern to me. Most of you know that the FBI completes an annual report on Law Enforcement Officer Killed and Assaulted. However, while going over the last few of these reports, I found one that they had compiled covering a 10-year period.
Years ago (late 1990s), I attended several excellent presentations by Dave Grossman. He gave in more than one of those the disturbing information that one-third of Officers killed by violent assault in the line of duty die without ever doing a thing (meaning they did not even draw their weapon). I thought then how a truly sad number this was. Then reading the FBI’s LEOKA Report that covered the statistics from 1995-2004, It showed an even more disturbing number.
It shows that 594 Officers were killed in the line of duty during this time and that of these, 594 only 126 fired their weapons during the incident, while 94 attempted to fire their weapon, making a total of 293 (49.3 percent) officers who died while not using nor even getting the chance to use their weapons!
Improvement in this area would obviously help us to keep our numbers under 100.
You are probably wondering how we can make this near 50 percent ratio smaller. I believe that the best way to do that is by teaching and/or strongly encouraging all LEOs the importance of MENTAL PREPAREDNESS!
The proper mindset or mental preparedness is the single best way to avoid complacency, and I believe that complacency can be directly attributed to many of this very unfortunate number of 49.3percent.
Speaking of mental preparedness, according to an expert in the field of combat – The ability to shoot and hit is directly controlled by the state of readiness that you are in – Col. Jeff Cooper
I have seen many subscribers to this site (PoliceOne) make statements like “You should always be on at least condition yellow” which is referring to Col. Jeff Cooper’s “Levels of Awareness.”
Let’s take a look at his scale:
• Level 1/White — This is while you’re at home, sittin’ around in your underwear scratchin’ yourself (hopefully you are not eating cheese puffs)
• Level 2/Yellow — This level should begin when you put your weapon on, you should be aware of your surroundings, aware that there may be possible threats
• Level 3/Orange — You are aware that there is a potential threat, you may have to use force against this person
• Level 4/Red — The threat is there. You are employing the necessary weapons system at/to the appropriate target
I believe that the “Below 100” is a very good, reachable goal, but we all need to do our part in order to make it happen.
