Start of Watch – Briefing
briefing noun brief·ing ˈbrē-fiŋ Synonyms of briefing : an act or instance of giving precise instructions or essential information Briefing is the foundation for a street cop's workday, like a good breakfast. My focus is [...]
Trends in Police Training – Part 3
Here are parts One and Two covering the Law Enforcement Education Program presentation at this year's SHOT Show. Good Enough? How good do you have to be? No one will argue that you should not [...]
Trends In Police Training — Part 1
This was the second year that AmericanCop has been a co-sponsor for the Law Enforcement Education Program (LEEP) during the SHOT Show. LEEP is a long-running, law enforcement-centric version of SHOT Show University, focused on [...]
Train To Win The Fight, Not a Contest
One of the most difficult things for police firearms trainers to do is stay focused on practical training. Too often, training is focused on what will win contests. It's one reason why I cringe when [...]
Where Are They Taking My Gun? — Post-Shooting Forensics
Whether you work for a department having civilians or sworn in charge of your forensic investigation unit, there are certain common denominators throughout the country. Understandably, no matter what the circumstances of an officer’s shooting [...]
The Significance Of S.H.I.T.T.
Perhaps the most gratifying thing a police supervisor can hear is one of his officers telling another, “Yeah, the sarge really has his shit together,” or any of those other scatological allusions which convey the [...]
August is Shooting Sports Month
Do you know what month it is? If you answered August, you are correct. However, you are not completely right. The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), has designated August as National Shooting Sports Month. [...]
Command Posts
Coordinating And Containment — Simplified “All that it takes for evil to win in the world is for enough good men to do nothing.” Henry David Thoreau might not have been referencing command posts when [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Making Ready
There was an interesting confluence of events over the weekend. The first was the anniversary of Patrick Rogers' death. A good number of experienced private sector trainers were influenced by Rogers and likely connected to [...]
You Have Got To Stop The Bleeding – medical training and equipment
Which are you more likely to use: Medical skills? Defensive firearms skills? Before we look at the numbers, I’ll say that on the day you need either one, that skill set will be the most [...]
Dark Angel Medical Direct Action Response Training: Essential Lifesaving Skills
Basic first aid training was once considered sufficient for law enforcement officers. That is no longer the case. When survival is measured in seconds, will you know what to do? Just as we train for [...]
IMMEDIATE CASUALTY CARE IWB SERIES | Essential Trauma Gear Made Practical
Immediate Casualty Care was founded by Jon Grabo, a full-time firefighter and paramedic, to provide training and low-profile gear for private security, on and off duty first responders and the prepared citizen. Jon wanted [...]
A SILENT KILLER | Mitigating Exposure Risks from Lead at Shooting Ranges
The risk of lead poisoning is a very real safety hazard that every agency and officer needs to take heed of and take steps to mitigate. Every shooter does, as well. It’s a hidden [...]
Inattention Or Just Confusion?
Over the past few (several?) years, the firearms training community has seen an influx of new and non-traditional students. These students are often new gun owners with minimal prior exposure to firearms. One frequent issue [...]
Focusing on Manual Safeties
As a trainer, I work with cops from a wide variety of agencies, and it’s always interesting to me when students from diverse backgrounds make the same mistakes in training. One example that I see [...]
Shifting From One Side To The Other
Lateral Transitions - No, not Literal. Lateral - moving side to side, sideways. Why? Two-fold. 1st, BadGuys move. Few people will stand there and not move once gunshots begin to be fired. You see it [...]
On Target: Reading Wind and Trajectory
Understanding the impact of wind on a projectile's trajectory is crucial for precision shooting. Trajectory refers to the path that a projectile or object follows through space because of external forces acting upon it. For [...]