Monday, May 27, 2013
iPad Sound Blaster
This may not have a lot to do with officer safety but Got an iPad? Want to hear it better with out phones.
Sunday, April 21, 2013
It's OK to feel OK when you have to take a life
Submitted by:
Chuck Remsberg, PoliceOne Columnist
The officer who approached international trainer Brian Willis at a speaking engagement recently is not unique, unfortunately. He’d shot and killed a suspect who was trying to kill him—and he was troubled because he didn’t feel any anguish about it. He worried that that made him “some kind of a psycho.”
“We make a mistake by telling officers that if they kill an offender they’re going to have emotional turmoil afterward,” Willis says. “For a long time, we’ve heard statistics quoted about the high percentage of officers who take a life and then leave the profession because they can’t cope.
“But research conducted by Dr. Audrey Honig, the chief psychologist for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, has proven that’s a myth. The majority adjust very well after a shooting and are fine with what they’ve done. Yet by continuing to emphasize the negative possibilities, we create the expectation that you’re supposed to feel bad. If you don’t, you question yourself.”
With rare exception, Willis points out, assailants are killed because they pose a mortal threat to the officer involved or someone else. “In a critical moment, the officer does what needs to be done and he saves a life by doing it.
“It’s okay to be at peace with that. It’s okay to be okay.”
He cites the case of an officer who was attacked from behind by a suspect and knocked unconscious.
“When he came to, the suspect was beating him with a flashlight and had the officer’s sidearm out of its holster. The officer fought desperately to keep the suspect from shooting him.
“Then he remembered the rescue knife he carried in the trauma-plate pocket of his vest. He pulled it and slashed the suspect’s throat. Then he gained control of the gun and shot him dead.
“That officer was roasted in the media for what he did. But he had this perspective: ‘What I did was lawful, what I did was reasonable, and what I did saved my life. I can live with that.’ He wasn’t gloating by any means, but he was emotionally at peace with what he did and how he did it.”
Willis believes it’s important for officers to hear from trainers, supervisors, and administrators that it’s okay to be in that frame of mind after a fatal shooting. “By the same token,” he says, “it’s okay not to be okay. It is critically important to seek professional counseling if you are troubled. It’s a courageous sign of strength to recognize the symptoms of post-traumatic stress and to get help if you are bothered, rather than destroy yourself, your family, and your career.”
In training, Willis says, “we tend to dance around the word ‘kill’ and instead just talk about ‘stopping the threat.’ But the reality is that you may have to take a life someday as part of your duty. And that moment may be very up close, even at contact range.
“Thinking about that possibility and its personal implications well in advance can help you achieve the peace of mind afterward that you will likely deserve.”
Chuck Remsberg, PoliceOne Columnist
The officer who approached international trainer Brian Willis at a speaking engagement recently is not unique, unfortunately. He’d shot and killed a suspect who was trying to kill him—and he was troubled because he didn’t feel any anguish about it. He worried that that made him “some kind of a psycho.”
“We make a mistake by telling officers that if they kill an offender they’re going to have emotional turmoil afterward,” Willis says. “For a long time, we’ve heard statistics quoted about the high percentage of officers who take a life and then leave the profession because they can’t cope.
“But research conducted by Dr. Audrey Honig, the chief psychologist for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, has proven that’s a myth. The majority adjust very well after a shooting and are fine with what they’ve done. Yet by continuing to emphasize the negative possibilities, we create the expectation that you’re supposed to feel bad. If you don’t, you question yourself.”
With rare exception, Willis points out, assailants are killed because they pose a mortal threat to the officer involved or someone else. “In a critical moment, the officer does what needs to be done and he saves a life by doing it.
“It’s okay to be at peace with that. It’s okay to be okay.”
He cites the case of an officer who was attacked from behind by a suspect and knocked unconscious.
“When he came to, the suspect was beating him with a flashlight and had the officer’s sidearm out of its holster. The officer fought desperately to keep the suspect from shooting him.
“Then he remembered the rescue knife he carried in the trauma-plate pocket of his vest. He pulled it and slashed the suspect’s throat. Then he gained control of the gun and shot him dead.
“That officer was roasted in the media for what he did. But he had this perspective: ‘What I did was lawful, what I did was reasonable, and what I did saved my life. I can live with that.’ He wasn’t gloating by any means, but he was emotionally at peace with what he did and how he did it.”
Willis believes it’s important for officers to hear from trainers, supervisors, and administrators that it’s okay to be in that frame of mind after a fatal shooting. “By the same token,” he says, “it’s okay not to be okay. It is critically important to seek professional counseling if you are troubled. It’s a courageous sign of strength to recognize the symptoms of post-traumatic stress and to get help if you are bothered, rather than destroy yourself, your family, and your career.”
In training, Willis says, “we tend to dance around the word ‘kill’ and instead just talk about ‘stopping the threat.’ But the reality is that you may have to take a life someday as part of your duty. And that moment may be very up close, even at contact range.
“Thinking about that possibility and its personal implications well in advance can help you achieve the peace of mind afterward that you will likely deserve.”
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
Identify suspects, see like an artist
Can sketching faces improve your observational skills? Trainer John Demand Jr. thinks so. In his courses on Rapid Recognition, which aim at strengthening officers’ visual perception, he points out that “the average person, including cops, doesn’t recognize faces very well, while caricaturists and portrait artists tend to be quite good at it.”
He has tested hundreds of officers by showing them, one at a time, “target” photographs of various individuals and then having them try to quickly identify those same subjects when they are disguised or mingled with persons who have similar facial features.
“Initially,” he says, “officers usually score quite low, making accurate matches only 20 to 50 per cent of the time. In contrast, artists I’ve tested tend to score 70, 80, even 100 per cent from the start.”
After the pre-test, Demand has his police trainees practice drawing faces from photographs, paying close attention to the configuration of features, unusual characteristics, and other details. They’re encouraged to note the general shape of the head first and then to study the face in three levels from pate to neck and to sketch accordingly.
“This exercise gets them to start seeing a face differently, distinguishing and remembering the various elements the way an artist would,” he explains.
Polished drawing skill, he points out, is not important. It’s studying and attempting to draw accurately that imprint distinctive characteristics of the face in memory.
On retesting, officers “average at least 30 percent better, with some showing 70 to 80 per cent improvement,” he says. “If they continue practicing, their accuracy only increases. If you’re thinking, ‘How would I draw that face,’ you pick up on things you might not notice otherwise.”
Facial recognition can play an important role in policing, from recognizing wanted lawbreakers you may see on the street to identifying missing or abducted children you might encounter on a traffic stop.
“People of interest are often seen by officers who don’t recognize them, even though they’ve been shown photos of them at roll call,” says Demand, himself a former cop who now conducts training independently through his organization Observation on Demand.
“Making a hobby of sketching faces is a motor activity that puts your brain in a different mode. It forces you to look at details that can’t be disguised and sharpens your observational skills significantly.
“An easy place to start is by drawing celebrities from photos you see in magazines,” he says.
For training information and to contact Demand, email: jdemandjr@aol.com
He has tested hundreds of officers by showing them, one at a time, “target” photographs of various individuals and then having them try to quickly identify those same subjects when they are disguised or mingled with persons who have similar facial features.
“Initially,” he says, “officers usually score quite low, making accurate matches only 20 to 50 per cent of the time. In contrast, artists I’ve tested tend to score 70, 80, even 100 per cent from the start.”
After the pre-test, Demand has his police trainees practice drawing faces from photographs, paying close attention to the configuration of features, unusual characteristics, and other details. They’re encouraged to note the general shape of the head first and then to study the face in three levels from pate to neck and to sketch accordingly.
“This exercise gets them to start seeing a face differently, distinguishing and remembering the various elements the way an artist would,” he explains.
Polished drawing skill, he points out, is not important. It’s studying and attempting to draw accurately that imprint distinctive characteristics of the face in memory.
On retesting, officers “average at least 30 percent better, with some showing 70 to 80 per cent improvement,” he says. “If they continue practicing, their accuracy only increases. If you’re thinking, ‘How would I draw that face,’ you pick up on things you might not notice otherwise.”
Facial recognition can play an important role in policing, from recognizing wanted lawbreakers you may see on the street to identifying missing or abducted children you might encounter on a traffic stop.
“People of interest are often seen by officers who don’t recognize them, even though they’ve been shown photos of them at roll call,” says Demand, himself a former cop who now conducts training independently through his organization Observation on Demand.
“Making a hobby of sketching faces is a motor activity that puts your brain in a different mode. It forces you to look at details that can’t be disguised and sharpens your observational skills significantly.
“An easy place to start is by drawing celebrities from photos you see in magazines,” he says.
For training information and to contact Demand, email: jdemandjr@aol.com
Monday, November 26, 2012
10 Key Points for Your Families Crises Plan
We’ve talked about this before but Hurricane-turned-Superstorm Sandy sparks a reminder of the importance of having a pre-determined family plan in place for serious situations where you’ll be called to duty — potentially for many days at a time — and unavailable to be with your family.
If a mass event is imminent (and here in the San Francisco Bay Area, that’s a daily danger), make sure you’ve covered the following with your family:
1.) Location of emergency supplies you have purchased ahead of time — flashlights, emergency radio, batteries, extra ammo — and what supplies (and in what quantities) your family will need to get while you’re gone.
2.) Phone numbers for those you know would be most helpful to your family in the event of an emergency. Remember, fellow first responders, although likely at the top of your family help list, will probably be in the same situation you’re in so consider others as well.
3.) Evacuation route plans created with potential mass panic and movement in mind.
4.) Strategies for handling loss of heat, water, electricity, and a full working knowledge of any back-up power systems you may have in place.
5.) Survival and self-defense tactics that may come into play in a mass emergency situation.
6.) Family member roles for everyone, including the kids, to ensure calm, effective teamwork in a chaotic situation.
7.) Several pre-plotted housing options, in various locations, should your family need to leave your home, as well as a public and easily-accessible, preferably outdoor rendezvous / rally point if meeting at those places is no longer an option.
8.) First aid. Is everyone up to speed should injuries occur and medical help isn’t readily available?
9.) What’s the plan for getting to relatives who may need help or getting them to you?
10.) What’s the crisis level bar for having your family contact you — no matter what — even though you’re busy and need to focus on your job and your safety?
You’ve accepted the difficult and honorable call to help others in a crisis. Pre-planning can help you ensure that doesn’t come at the expense of your own family.
If a mass event is imminent (and here in the San Francisco Bay Area, that’s a daily danger), make sure you’ve covered the following with your family:
1.) Location of emergency supplies you have purchased ahead of time — flashlights, emergency radio, batteries, extra ammo — and what supplies (and in what quantities) your family will need to get while you’re gone.
2.) Phone numbers for those you know would be most helpful to your family in the event of an emergency. Remember, fellow first responders, although likely at the top of your family help list, will probably be in the same situation you’re in so consider others as well.
3.) Evacuation route plans created with potential mass panic and movement in mind.
4.) Strategies for handling loss of heat, water, electricity, and a full working knowledge of any back-up power systems you may have in place.
5.) Survival and self-defense tactics that may come into play in a mass emergency situation.
6.) Family member roles for everyone, including the kids, to ensure calm, effective teamwork in a chaotic situation.
7.) Several pre-plotted housing options, in various locations, should your family need to leave your home, as well as a public and easily-accessible, preferably outdoor rendezvous / rally point if meeting at those places is no longer an option.
8.) First aid. Is everyone up to speed should injuries occur and medical help isn’t readily available?
9.) What’s the plan for getting to relatives who may need help or getting them to you?
10.) What’s the crisis level bar for having your family contact you — no matter what — even though you’re busy and need to focus on your job and your safety?
You’ve accepted the difficult and honorable call to help others in a crisis. Pre-planning can help you ensure that doesn’t come at the expense of your own family.
Thursday, October 18, 2012
Stay alert in your surroundings during pursuit
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.
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.
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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