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2011 in Review: Top 10 tactical tips

As editor of Police1 I have access to reams of data related to our site traffic. In fact, on alternating Tuesday mornings I host a meeting with some of my Police1 colleagues entitled, “Lies, Damned Lies, and Site Statistics” (who among you gets that reference?). It often infuriates me that a tip about officer safety generally gets just one tenth the traffic a news article about some poor sod shooting off his own manhood.

Admittedly, the silly and the salacious news items have their place and drive a good amount of traffic, but if just one cop out there is safer as a result of reading a tactical tip which got a “statistically insignificant” level of readership, my job for that day will have been done — and done well!

I do my best to learn some lessons from the behavior of our members. So, every so often I run a report to get the answer to a specific question, such as, “What were our top tips this year?”

As you have already guessed, the following collection — arranged Letterman style, with the number-one most-most popular at the very end — is the direct result of that query. Please be advised! This is the exact result the computer spit back out at me — not my cherry-picked list of “favorites.” Let’s get to it, shall we?

#10.) Leading off at number ten is my good friend from Long Island, Rich Von Voigt, with some excellent advice on Making time to work out. “Take a few minutes to stretch out your back, legs, and arms,” says Von Voigt. “Reach for the trunk assume the position and do about 10-25 pushups.” Do this little workout routine every hour starting with the second hour and finish on the seventh hour, and you’ll have done a minimum of 60 pushups on your tour.

#9.) Next we have a tip submitted by Robert Smyth of the Pinellas County (Fla.) Sheriff’s Office in which he outlines Considerations on where to carry a backup gun. “As a road officer for over 23 years,” says Smyth, “I began my career with the attitude of: ‘It’s better to have it and not need it then to need it and not have it.’

#8.) This is one from yours truly. If memory serves, I’d been in a conversation with a friend of mine about an episode of Mythbusters related to pirates wearing a patch over one eye when it dawned on us both that officers may want to Time the removal of your sunglasses. Consider removing them immediately after entering an area of lower light, instead of taking them off just beforehand. This will help prevent your eyes from taking a direct blast of bright light just seconds before they need to acclimate to a darkened area.

#7.) This one was a bit of a surprise. When I posted it, I thought it was such “old news” that no one would click, but click you did! In the tip So-called ‘works bombs’ can cause injury, I rhetorically ask and answer, “Are these devices deadly? No. Would one ruin your whole day? Probably.”

#6.) On the opposite side of “surprise” I was delighted to see that the tip submitted by Captain Greg Brown made the top ten. In Muscle strength versus body mechanics, Capt. Brown says, “Learning mechanics such as foot positioning, hand positioning, body angles — and how to make then all work in any direction you move — is key in any law enforcement environment.”

#5.) During April 2011, my friend and Police1 colleague Chuck Remsberg posted a tip he heard about from police attorney Richard Crites of Springfield (Mo.). In New Social Security numbers won’t bear helpful code, Chuck writes that new SSNs will no longer follow that geographic encoding (officially called the “area number”). The first three digits of new cards will be randomized, with no inherent meaning. Older numbers will stay the same as they are and, therefore, will still reflect the previous code.

#4.) I was also pleased to discover that this video tip from Diana Rathborne, one of the top female martial arts instructors in the country, also made the top ten. Check out the video in Defending a wide punch and add your thoughts on the tactic in the comments area below it.

#3.) The third-most trafficked tactical tip posted to Police1 in 2011 is from the abovementioned Chuck Remsberg. Well, he’s the conduit anyway. These seven checkpoints were suggested by Det. David Schiff of the Morrow (Ga.) PD at an ILEETA training conference and elaborated on recently in an interview with Police1. Check out 7 quick questions to test your psychological well-being and let us know what you think.

#2.) Coming in at number two is a tip I did somewhat reluctantly. The same exact video had been sent to me by no less than a half dozen P1 Members during a period of a couple of months. I checked it out and posted a tip on the so-called FMG-9 (short for “Folding Machine-Gun 9mm”), a ‘conceptual prototype’ demonstrated at SHOT Show 2008. Among the comments beneath Watch out for this flashlight gun ‘prototype’ I particularly liked this one: “Your average knucklehead is not going to have one of these. I have always been above average, though, so I want one.”

#1.) And the number-one, most-trafficked tactical tip on Police1 in calendar year 2011 is... (drum roll, please, Anton)... once again from yours truly. I knew full well when I posted Possible firearms concealment for female subjects that it would “do well” statistically. I mean, seriously, you post a video of an attractive gal — who my friend Dick Fairburn said to me in an email “appears to be .38D caliber” — to a website predominantly trafficked by men age 22-65, you have to expect it to get some attention. But check this out: the number one tip got nearly five times the traffic number two got. The good news is that this tip actually got just about the same traffic as that news piece, Police urge holster use after man shoots own penis. Gads.

As I shut down tactical tips for the year 2011, I implore each and every one of you to return regularly to our tips page. You may merely find a reminder or you may learn something completely new. Above all, when you see a tip and add to it your own experience and intelligence, you’ve made Police1 an even more valuable resource for your brother and sister police officers.

OK, check out the video (again, for the tenth time) of the so-called flash-bang bra. Enjoy, then get your head back into condition yellow before you roll out on patrol your next shift.

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.

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