If you wear an outside vest cover or a “tac vest” make sure that you take the time to adjust it to fit properly each time. During a recent firearms qualification, during my “draw and fire” drills I caught my pistol on the loose fitting vest cover, causing a delay in my getting the pistol out of the holster and up to the target. My firearms instructor caught the problem immediately...because of a recent weight loss, my vest was hanging differently on my body. A simple adjustment of the Velcro fixed the problem, but as often as we take our vests on and off, its a good idea to make it a daily habit to check the fit of your outside vest cover to make sure it doesn’t hamper quick access to your pistol or any of your other tools.
Check your tac vest
My column is undergoing a bit of an identity crisis. I’ve been writing for the Street Survival “Newsline” and the P1 Newsletter for several years. As a Street Survival seminar instructor, I write about officer safety and survival, but I’m also a supervisor, a mom, a trainer, a cop’s wife, and dare I say, a woman, so I’ve got a lot to say about any number of topics (what woman doesn’t?!), and I’ve always received great feedback from our readers. So when Police One approached me and asked me to author a monthly column dealing with women’s issues, I enthusiastically agreed. “What a great opportunity” I naively thought “to bring issues to light that both women and men in law enforcement could all relate to, perhaps discuss at roll call, and ultimately learn something from each other.” Yeah, just call me Sergeant Pollyanna…I forgot that by calling it a “women’s” column, not only will most of our male readers skip over it, but so will at least half our female readers. What?! Why in the world wouldn’t women read a “women’s” column?! Because, there are a lot of female crimefighters out there like me who have spent a lot of years just trying to blend in, to be “one of the guys” if you will…to be perceived as and conduct ourselves as “warriors,” not “victims.” We don’t want special treatment; we just want to be cops.