Training for the right side vehicle approach
Editor's note: PoliceOne has partnered with the New York Tactical Officers Association (NYTOA) to bring you feature articles from their outstanding publication, NY Tactical magazine. The following article first appeared in NY Tactical and is reprinted by permission of the publisher. Check back on Tuesdays toward the middle of every month for features from NYTOA.
Get out of the "square range mentality"
This medieval mindset over the course of a generation has left deep psychological and physiological training scars, that which we in the Special Operations and the Law Enforcement community are only now beginning to understand.
Like a bad parent, we dogmatically indoctrinate faulty methodology, reducing our students’ ability to think freely, turning officers into mindless robots with feet made of clay. Ultimately, we cannibalize our young officers and tactical operators, decrying their lack of weapons craft and situational awareness during deadly force encounters, disposing them into the ash bin of public and legal scrutiny.
Perhaps our imperfect solution may be to think out of the square range box. One unique way to accomplish this is to build into firearms training a fluid and flexible, ever-changing firing line. For the earth is not flat…, and on the street… down range does not exist.
For the express purpose of this article, we will use the right side approach tactic during traffic stops to illustrate our non-standard shooting range.