Hooded reaction drills have been used to sharpen elite special ops teams in the military for years, but they seem to have made relatively little penetration into law enforcement training. Too bad, because they’re a low-cost means of delivering maximum intensity to trainees in a minimum amount of time.
“In a single room with a single set of role-players, you can run an officer through five to ten hooded drills in just a few minutes,” says one law enforcement proponent, perennial ILEETA trainer Kevin Davis. Here’s how he does it:
The officer being tested is positioned with a towel or other covering draped over his head to block his vision. One or more role-players quietly take places nearby, either right in his face or with some reactionary gap, depending on the scenario. As the players kick into their act, an instructor suddenly yanks the hood off the officer’s head and he is expected to control whatever action-in-progress he sees.
“It could be a single drunk, a couple engaged in a domestic, a suspect threatening the officer with a knife, a hostage-taker with a gun to a victim’s head — you’re limited only by your imagination,” Davis says. “In some scenarios, one of the role-players could be in uniform so the tested officer is forced to work with a partner in establishing control.”
Once a situation is resolved, the hood goes back on and the players get ready for the next confrontation. Light levels can be altered, blaring music or other noise can be added to heighten stress and confusion, and fight suits and Airsoft ammunition are used (along with two safety officers) to protect everyone.
“The idea is to give very short, high-intensity encounters that challenge an officer to respond with tactics and techniques he’s learned in training, whether it’s firearms, DT, verbal skills, whatever,” Davis says. “Not only is the experience a test for officers, it’s a test for trainers to see if what they’re teaching is actually employed properly in a realistic situation.”
Everything is videotaped so the officer can participate in a critique of his performance afterward. “Each trainee is put through two different sets of five scenarios to get the stress level cranked up,” Davis says. “Even though the stress is greater, you tend to see vastly improved performance in the second set as they learn to focus better on responding effectively.
“If an officer has a sub-optimal reaction, we add extra scenarios until he or she can finish with a success.”
He emphasizes that it’s important for officers to be thoroughly trained in response techniques before hooded drills are attempted. “Otherwise, you’ll just have a meltdown that doesn’t help anyone.”
For more information, Davis can be reached at: trainerKevinDavis@gmail.com.
