Managing Personal Risk
Expert Witnesses are the people who get to tell the triers of fact why things happened the way they did. Why what you did was reasonable and in line with your training. Or it wasn’t. All sides use them – prosecution and defense, plaintiff and respondent. You might have been in court with them on a variety of cases – I testified as an expert in several areas. However, this article looks at use-of-force events. [...]
Small Unit Tactics for Patrol
principles /prĭn′sə-pəl/ noun A basic truth, law, or assumption. "the principles of democracy." A rule or standard, especially of good behavior. "a man of principle." tactics /tăk′tĭks/ noun The study of the most effective ways of securing objectives set by strategy, as in deploying and directing troops, ships, and aircraft [...]
ThunderStick Summit’s Q&A Session
The last weekend of September saw the fourth ThunderStick Summit out at the Staccato Vegas facility in Pahrump, NV. Thunderstick is a yearly three-day event focusing on the defensive use of shotguns. Four years ago, several instructors who teach the shotgun began a conversation about hosting an event focused on [...]
Increasing Survivability
I spent this past weekend taking Heiho Consulting Group's Applied Defensive Handgun Skills class. To say it was not what many perceive a shooting class to be is an understatement. One example, my round count was about 350. The best description of the material was that this class was hitting [...]
Partners – Time Can Get Help To Your Side
Good news - the number of murdered officers is down Year-To-Date this year (2025) when compared to last year (2024). However, it appears from media coverage that "we" are back to seeing attacks on L/E that potentially could have been minimized, if not prevented. Yes, I know there's a media [...]
Training for the Small Town
Small departments are the norm. How do you provide the ongoing, recurrent training every cop needs? The best number I have seen indicates that there are over 18,000 law enforcement agencies in the country. Police departments, sheriff's offices, state police, parole/probation, and specialized agencies. It becomes interesting when you examine [...]
From One To The Next — Some Handheld Light Techniques
We are far more likely to use and need a hand-held flashlight than we are a pistol-mounted light. Never mind lights mounted on shotguns and carbines. Those are for another discussion. Before we get into the meat of the discussion, there are two things to address. First, none of these [...]
Tactical Anatomy
In recent years, tactical anatomy has had a renaissance. Some instructors are again emphasizing it while integrating it into their coursework. Others (like this author) make it a primary focus. What we have lacked is someone with the authoritative background—medical, tactical, and instructional—to teach it. This is where Dr. Andy [...]
Pepper & Sticks
Change "The only thing cops hate more than change is the way things are." I don't know where to attribute that quote because I've heard it so much over the years. We tend to complain about the "that's how we've always done it" excuse but then don't do our part [...]
Giving Commands
Recently, body-worn camera (BWC) footage from a police department on the West Coast was sent to me. While the sender wanted to discuss something else, the commands given were of interest to me. Or, I should say, how they were given. (Note: this is not a criticism of the officers, [...]
It Has Happened Before — Norco
Today, patrol rifles are common in patrol cars. They are routinely issued to patrol, and often, most officers in an agency have a rifle. This was not the case in the 1980s. Back then, most police officers only had a revolver with a total of 18 rounds and, possibly, a [...]