Feel for a subject's movement during pat downs

Submitted by:  Doug Wyllie

In many past Street Survival Seminars, attendees had been shown a surveillance video from a prison in which inmates used combs and toothbrushes to practice disarming techniques. The bad guys continue to practice tactical movements today. A PoliceOne Member just sent us an alert that his PD recently received an email from an NRA firearms instructor who observed what he believed to be organized firearm training by gang members that had these individuals practicing the ability to an officer from the standard pat-down position. According to that NRA instructor, the shooter in this drill extends his hands in the standard pat-down position, and then on command, the shooter drops, rolls, and draws — shooting the target from less than five feet away. “With this in mind,” this P1 Member writes, “an officer needs to be ready for anything when dealing with a compliant suspect.” Agreed. While conducting a pat down, you’re not only feeling for objects on the individual, but also feeling for resistive tension and other minute movements the individual may be making that could be pre-attack indicators. Be especially sensitive — given this new information — to a subject who suddenly drops to the ground.