Editor’s Note: This week’s PoliceOne First Person essay is from PoliceOne Member Sam Preston, a Lieutenant with the Vanderburgh County Sheriff’s Office in Evansville, Indiana. In 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 Sam Preston
Vanderburgh County (Ind.) Sheriff’s Office
Throughout my career as a deputy and instructor there has been a huge evolution in training. Technology and improvements in safety equipment has allowed us to focus on Reality Based Training (RBT) at a level that only a few years ago could never be achieved. I truly believe that RBT has saved many lives of our law enforcement brothers and sisters. I also believe that more important than the improved physical skills RBT provides, the tactical mindset is the most important.
While there is a cost associated with all training, Simunitions and Airsoft weapons are now affordable for most agencies to purchase or borrow. Also, the cost of protective gear for defensive tactics training has gone down considerably. The one area where realistic, dynamic training is difficult is vehicle operations. Skill courses can be created but finding locations to do scenario based pursuits or RBD (Reality Based Driving) are nearly non-existent. Simulators are getting better but is still cost prohibitive for a lot of agencies.
So, the big question for EVO instructors is how to improve training in order to keep officers safe? One way is to build upon the mindset we have developed in our other psycho-motor skills — especially those developed in building clearing and active shooter training. After all in all police training isn’t the main goals to stay safe and eliminate the threat.
A few years ago, I began to make a point of incorporating the same language we use in our firearms training. Cones now are referred to as threats and we strive to assimilate driving down the road in both emergency and non-emergency modes as clearing a hallway.
Captain Travis Yates from the Tulsa Police department wrote a recent article on Police1 titled, “Intersections: An enemy in waiting.” In this article, Captain Yates looked at the number of police crashes in intersections and offered great tactical advice on how properly clear them safely. The first thing that jumped out at me was Yates choice of the word “enemy.”
I can’t think of a better description.
In an active-shooter scenario with a single-officer deployment or a team of four, the concept is still the same. The officer is going as quickly and safely as possible down the hallway, scanning, identifying, and addressing threats. Door open right, check and move on, door shut left, hallway right. Innocents may run toward you, victims may be lying on the floor, and your goal regardless of the obstacles is to get to the problem safely.
Now, transfer this to responding to an emergency call. The roadway is now the hallway—scanning, left and right, you call out, “Bicycle left... clear!” and move on. Jogger on the right, dog on the sidewalk, parked car on the left.
Each of these is a “treat” and has to be addressed with a tactical decision-making mindset.
Intersections are indeed the enemy and now put you in the position where you often forced to face multiple assailants at once. In the firearms world this is addressed by identifying the most immediate/dangerous threat and then moving to the next. In the EVO world this is also true.
There is no replacement for hands-on training, but sharpening these skills can be achieved in a number of ways. The easiest is to watch video. This can be either footage from your own office or from other sources.
During roll call, ask your officers to watch a clip and identify the threats. Compare notes and watch again. Another way is the next time you are driving make an actual effort of verbalize everything you notice while you are driving. You will be amazed at what you see when you think about it (try to avoid pointing as people next to you will give you funny looks). If you have a dash cam I would also encourage to go back and review your last few emergency runs or pursuits. I’m willing to bet you’ll pick up things that you did not see in real time.
As instructors, it is important for us to find ways to develop our officers. Transferring the tactical thought process among our training disciplines reduces confusion and instills confidence.
