Taser Day

We had “Taser Day” last week. This was the epilog to the macing experience from several weeks ago as described in this blog. The experience is something you should look forward to. In reality, the bad news is that being tasered is probably the most horrible physical pain you may experience in your life. The good news is that the intensity only lasts for about 5 seconds or so; a much shorter time period than the eternity of discomfort that one experiences with being maced. All your muscles tense up and you can’t move. You can think, you are aware of your surroundings, but you cannot move. If, in the future you decide to enter the Jefferson County Academy, you too will have the opportunity to add this experience to your life, if you choose. Being tasered is uncomfortable but it allows you to experience what an individual feels when tasered and how the process can incapacitate anyone, including a police officer. As a police officer on patrol, being tasered allows your weapons and whatever you are carrying to be available to anyone because it is very plain that one would be unable to prevent anyone from taking those items after the taseing.

I will tell you the experience is very uncomfortable but you will survive it.

Until next time……..

Driving

Sorry for the delays in making new entries. I have been very busy.

We had driving training all last week and I spent all of my time up at the track. I have to admit that driving is a real kick. Everything you wanted to do (and probably did) as a teenager but here it was legal! As usual our instructors were great.

We worked on turning at high speeds, steering, backing, avoidance braking and threshold breaking. This is fun stuff. Imagine doing all of these things, stopping, and being told to do it again. This is probably the only place where you can literally, on purpose, lose complete control of your vehicle, and spin out. Imagine that upon completing all of this and returning to the group, the instructor will ask “what went wrong?” You give the correct answer and he says “Good job and now go back out there and do it right.” Notice the phrase “slow down!” does not appear. Sweeet!!!

However, if you are losing control due to excessive speed you will be told that you need to slow down. I never have had so much fun driving. It was fun to test the limits of the vehicle, your reactions, and discovering where “the line” is.

It was fun but you need to keep in mind that you are training for high speed pursuits. Cones are set about the course representing pedestrians, children, vehicles, etc. The fun was locating and establishing that acceptable level of speed and and as always, civilian safety.

Vehicle Contacts

We just finished a class on vehicle contacts. We worked on the procedures in pulling someone over in a traffic stop. I can’t stress this enough: Pulling someone over is a lot more then just walking up to the driver and writing a ticket. In my opinion this is actually one of the most dangerous aspects of being a cop. My reasoning is based on all of the unknown factors regarding this person. You don’t know who they are or what they are doing. The situation regarding weapons is unknown as is the drug situation. Thus, it is important to keep your officer safety procedures as the number one priority. It is important to remember and plan everything from preparing to stop an individual to your approach and your professionalism.

These are just a few things to keep in mind. Those of you applying will learn this but seeing hands of the individuals is a very important aspect of making a vehicle stop. Movements are very important. The instructors are great and I gained an amazing amount of knowledge in just one class. There are a lot of things to keep in your head, but the most important is to never, ever, become complacent. No stops are routine and one must always prepare themselves to be as safe as humanly possible.

Arrest Control: Choke Holds

We have done choke holds and how to escape from them during arrest control. Being choked will usually cause enough for most people to panic. When under duress, such as being choked, one still must remain calm and think about the situation. The first step, like most everything in law enforcement: Don’t Panic. Think of what must happen in order for you to escape.

As I have said before, when discussing training your mind, one must immediately come to the realization that if someone is choking you, they are trying to kill you. This is not martial arts class anymore. This is about your life. What I have learned is not to panic and to work yourself out of the situation. This means anything and everything is fair game to change the conditions of the situation. This person is trying to kill me and what am I going to do about it? My answer is what I have been taught from day one: WIN, NO MATTER THE COST! Again we don’t get paid to tie or lose.

Officer Survival

We recently had a class on officer survival. That class is geared in how to survive when things go bad. This class explains that having the right mental approach can save your life. Always maintain distance, know escape routes, always be ready to use force if necessary, and never be lulled into a state of being less than total aware of situations by apparent cooperation. We were taught that a truly prepared officer can depend on the fact that winning a violent confrontation is about 75% mental.

The most important piece of information I gained from this class is always stay aggressive and never quit. By staying aggressive you are more likely to wear down your opponent and win the confrontation. This dovetails with what we have had drilled into us since day one: we are not being paid to tie or lose fights. We are paid to win. For those of you who are going to apply and want to be police officer, my advice to you is to get into that mental mindset now and live by that statement. The other statement to set your life by is “lead, follow, or get the hell out of the way.”

I would also highly recommend practicing being observant, practice identifing potential threats, practice looking for cover and concealment, and always play the “what if” game in your head as you go through life. An example could be what if someone walked in to the restaurant, pulled a gun and shot someone. What would I do? Where is the cover? How do I get to the shooter if possible? Little games like this will condition your mind to react when something happens.

Defensive Seating

We just finished a class regarding officer survival. The class was geared more to how to survive in a firefight and the mindset you must have in order to survive. You get to hear the facts that the majority of cops are killed when they are alone, usually shot with a hand gun and usually within 10 feet.

The class presented information regarding the different awareness levels of being a cop. It is important for those applying with any law enforcement department that you can never be oblivious as to what is going on around you. You must always be searching for potential threats, exits and must be aware of the people around you and their behavior.

I have found that with a girlfriend, and this new found knowledge, it has become customary to have discussions with your significant other about where to sit when you go to restaurants. What I mean by this is, as a cop, you always want the defensive seating arrangement. Meaning you want to sit with your back to a wall and hopefully in a position that will allow you to be looking out at the customers within the restaurant. This would also include the entrance to the restaurant, giving you line of sight to all that are coming and going.

Now, every time I go to a restaurant, I notice that my girlfriend takes “that” seat. In which case, I ask her to move. This usually results in “The Look.” Those of you with a significant other probably have been the recipient of “The “Look.” I have been told that over time, significant others will start to learn about “The Seat,” therefore avoiding the public rendition of "The Look."