Although I haven’t had time to do a thorough systematic research project on this, I thought it may save lives and prevent injury to share it with Law Enforcement personnel.
Over the years I have noticed a fairly consistent pre-attack cue when officers have been shot at while conducting vehicle stops. It seemed that the suspect kept the brake lights on for an unnatural period of time before they shot at the officer(s). I can only attribute this to be related to their heightened state of arousal and overwhelmed senses of the impending ambush/attack. Perhaps subconsciously processed, if they were to put the car in park, it would not allow for as quick an escape and/or maybe also be felt as a sign of compliance/submission.
During their cycle of decision-making about when to attack and shoot the officer, that HOLDING pattern is accompanied with tension and large muscle (leg) stability (which is translated to the continuous pressure on the brake pedal). In one of the most-recently released dashcam videos (Montague County Texas) the same pattern played out.
Although this alone is not a sure pre-assault cue, it may be part of a recognizable behaviour pattern that could provide an officer an advantage when conducting unknown risk vehicle stops. Red is also universally recognized as danger/stop so the nexus is already there for awareness.
RULE: Brake lights still on? Then don’t approach yet until other tactics/options are employed/discussed and the risk is mitigated.
We are delivering training on how to pick up on the cluster of behaviours that lead up to an attack whether on foot or in vehicles. We utilize role players to perform natural and then subtle unnatural actions which the officers must perceive and then identify in context to the situation as to what the recognized and processed as potentially dangerous.
I have presented this information to our officers during cycle training and am in the process of a more detailed presentation.