When you’re in pursuit of a fleeing suspect it’s easy to fall prey to focusing — both physically and mentally — on one thing: the rabbit. With that comes the risk of completely disregarding consideration of your surroundings, which can be dangerous.
When you’re pursuing someone, consciously take the time to think about where you are and where you’re going, and continually evaluate the risks associated with the pursuit versus the reward of nabbing the perp.
• Is the suspect about to run full charge between two parked cars into a street where you could get clipped by passing traffic? • Did he just nimbly jump off a ledge that could have you crashing to the ground like a ton of bricks if you decide to immediately do the same? • Does he have enough of a lead on you that he could have time to position himself to attack you when you blindly round that corner of the building you just saw him turn?
Focusing on your target is important but doing so at the expense of your situational awareness can be tragic.
Thursday, October 18, 2012
Sunday, October 14, 2012
Retrieving Dropped Items
It’s natural to want to immediately bend over to retrieve something that’s dropped to the ground, like a license or insurance paperwork, during a traffic stop. It’s equally natural to reflexively reach down to grab something that’s fallen out of the hand of (or been intentionally dropped by) someone you’ve stopped on an FI.
Allowing that tendency to dictate your movements during an encounter with someone who could potentially pose a threat to you can have serious consequences.
Bending over to retrieve a dropped item can expose the back of your head and neck, and can put you in a position of potentially-compromised balance, which can be extremely dangerous if traffic is zipping past you on the stop.
Depending on how you bend over, it can also divert your attention away from the subject you’ve engaged.
Make a conscious effort to practice resisting the immediacy of the “pursuit of falling objects” instinct and work instead to maintain focus on the individual you’ve encountered. Take a few moments to consider why the object has been dropped. Was it actually an accident or is he trying to lure you into bending over in front of him so he can hit you in the back of the head or kick you in the face or push you off balance so you stumble in to traffic?
Next, consider whether retrieving whatever has fallen is even necessary or worth it. If on a traffic stop, for example, you have all the paperwork you need to finish your business, and the likelihood that the piece of paper that fell to the ground is harmless and completely irrelevant to your work is high, skip it for now.
Finally, if you feel retrieval is necessary at that moment, consider exactly how you’re going to position yourself to safely pick it up. Don’t just rush in to bending down.
Allowing that tendency to dictate your movements during an encounter with someone who could potentially pose a threat to you can have serious consequences.
Bending over to retrieve a dropped item can expose the back of your head and neck, and can put you in a position of potentially-compromised balance, which can be extremely dangerous if traffic is zipping past you on the stop.
Depending on how you bend over, it can also divert your attention away from the subject you’ve engaged.
Make a conscious effort to practice resisting the immediacy of the “pursuit of falling objects” instinct and work instead to maintain focus on the individual you’ve encountered. Take a few moments to consider why the object has been dropped. Was it actually an accident or is he trying to lure you into bending over in front of him so he can hit you in the back of the head or kick you in the face or push you off balance so you stumble in to traffic?
Next, consider whether retrieving whatever has fallen is even necessary or worth it. If on a traffic stop, for example, you have all the paperwork you need to finish your business, and the likelihood that the piece of paper that fell to the ground is harmless and completely irrelevant to your work is high, skip it for now.
Finally, if you feel retrieval is necessary at that moment, consider exactly how you’re going to position yourself to safely pick it up. Don’t just rush in to bending down.
Thursday, October 4, 2012
You pull the trigger, nothing happens. What now?
You respond to a domestic disturbance in a residential neighborhood and to your surprise you’re confronted by a middle-aged man standing in the driveway, pointing a shotgun at your marked unit.
You bail out to cover and draw down on him with your .45 H&K pistol. Repeatedly you command him to lower the shotgun. He doesn’t.
Your life at risk, you squeeze your trigger. The hammer drops — but your weapon does not fire.
Now what?
When that scenario played out in real life in Virginia a while ago, the threat never escalated further because the suspect at the pivotal moment belatedly decided to comply and peacefully laid down his weapon. Later, the involved officer’s agency said a department armorer had “failed to replace the handgun’s firing pin spring during routine maintenance.”
That’s a freak happenstance — other causes of stoppages arise more frequently, even though, in the opinion of well-known trainer John Farnam, “today’s law enforcement pistols tend to be the most reliable guns ever made.”
In training, Farnam sees officers unexpectedly unable to fire their semi-autos because of an empty chamber, a dud round, a slide out of battery (not completely forward), a manual safety that’s “on,” a decocking lever that’s inadvertently depressed...
In law enforcement, as Farnam reminds us, “There are things you can’t imagine but nothing that cannot happen.”
If a stoppage suddenly befalls you in a critical confrontation like the Virginia standoff, are you well-practiced in how to clear the problem and get your gun running again?
And if your clearing procedure fails, do you have the option of a backup gun?
“Now and then, an officer will ask why stoppage-reduction drills and transition-to-second-gun drills are necessary,” Farnam says. “But you need those procedures down pat. The possibility of a stoppage — not in the relative calm of the range but in the desperate fury of a gunfight — is easy to brush off... until it happens to you.”
He acknowledges that backup guns are disfavored by some administrators because of their “throw-down gun” connotation. But he considers the matter an officer-safety issue.
“No patrol officer should be out there without a second gun,” he told PoliceOne. “If you have one gun that’s not working, it’s unlikely you’ll have two that don’t work.”
The serial number of the backup should be recorded, to lessen the concern of it becoming a plant, Farnam suggests. And you should be required to qualify with the spare, the same as with your primary sidearm.
As for where to carry a backup, “a hide-out holster that attaches to your vest is a popular option,” Farnam says. “In any case, it should be carried concealed. Anything offenders can see, they can plan around.”
John Farnam, president of Defense Training International, can be reached at (970) 482-2520 or via email at: jsFarnam@aol.com.
You bail out to cover and draw down on him with your .45 H&K pistol. Repeatedly you command him to lower the shotgun. He doesn’t.
Your life at risk, you squeeze your trigger. The hammer drops — but your weapon does not fire.
Now what?
When that scenario played out in real life in Virginia a while ago, the threat never escalated further because the suspect at the pivotal moment belatedly decided to comply and peacefully laid down his weapon. Later, the involved officer’s agency said a department armorer had “failed to replace the handgun’s firing pin spring during routine maintenance.”
That’s a freak happenstance — other causes of stoppages arise more frequently, even though, in the opinion of well-known trainer John Farnam, “today’s law enforcement pistols tend to be the most reliable guns ever made.”
In training, Farnam sees officers unexpectedly unable to fire their semi-autos because of an empty chamber, a dud round, a slide out of battery (not completely forward), a manual safety that’s “on,” a decocking lever that’s inadvertently depressed...
In law enforcement, as Farnam reminds us, “There are things you can’t imagine but nothing that cannot happen.”
If a stoppage suddenly befalls you in a critical confrontation like the Virginia standoff, are you well-practiced in how to clear the problem and get your gun running again?
And if your clearing procedure fails, do you have the option of a backup gun?
“Now and then, an officer will ask why stoppage-reduction drills and transition-to-second-gun drills are necessary,” Farnam says. “But you need those procedures down pat. The possibility of a stoppage — not in the relative calm of the range but in the desperate fury of a gunfight — is easy to brush off... until it happens to you.”
He acknowledges that backup guns are disfavored by some administrators because of their “throw-down gun” connotation. But he considers the matter an officer-safety issue.
“No patrol officer should be out there without a second gun,” he told PoliceOne. “If you have one gun that’s not working, it’s unlikely you’ll have two that don’t work.”
The serial number of the backup should be recorded, to lessen the concern of it becoming a plant, Farnam suggests. And you should be required to qualify with the spare, the same as with your primary sidearm.
As for where to carry a backup, “a hide-out holster that attaches to your vest is a popular option,” Farnam says. “In any case, it should be carried concealed. Anything offenders can see, they can plan around.”
John Farnam, president of Defense Training International, can be reached at (970) 482-2520 or via email at: jsFarnam@aol.com.
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