FAST TRANSIENTS
The Tactical Tangents Bulletin
Context in Use of Force
Humans make a subconscious assessment of a problem when they choose a solution, and that subtlety cannot be overlooked in training. Last year, we ran a training scenario at my agency where officers responded to a disturbance at an open business. When they arrived, they saw…
No-Knock Search Warrants
NO-KNOCK SEARCH WARRANTS Police officers will sometimes ask a magistrate for permission to serve a warrant unannounced, which often involves the forcible entry into a home during a criminal investigation. The judge has to allow a special exception to normal...
Trauma Updates 2018
2018 SOUTHWEST TRAUMA CONFERENCE I spent the last couple days at the Southwest Regional Trauma Conference and wanted to share a few notes. The conference chairman is Dr. Andy Tang, the Trauma Director of Banner UMC in Tucson, who we interviewed on the podcast a little...
What Signal Are You Sending?
WHAT SIGNAL ARE YOU SENDING? We need to talk about the hats, bumper stickers, tattoos, and t-shirts. I once came across an email from a Sergeant Major in an elite counter-terrorism unit to his guys. It started: “We have become the people we always made fun of...” It...
Public Relations: You’re doing it wrong.
PUBLIC RELATIONS: YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG There was a recent Deputy-involved shooting in Arizona in which the suspect was killed and the deputy was wounded. A pro-LE media outlet published an article that said the Deputy, “…returned fire and permanently relieved the...
Shoot or No-Shoot?
SHOOT OR NO SHOOT? We had an interesting critical thinking debate at SWAT training recently. Suppose you are serving a search warrant in which crucial evidence could potentially be destroyed, and an entry is appropriate. During the entry, you encounter a man in...
K9s and Decision-Making
K9 Story of the Day My K9 partner and I recently worked with a team of Officers to arrest a man who ran from a stolen car with a 10-inch hunting knife on his belt. No one was more surprised than me when he crashed through the gate into the courtyard of an apartment...
Situational Awareness
Situational Awareness “You weren’t paying attention.” “YOU NEED BETTER S-A!” Many trainers (including me) have said something like this to a rookie after a situation where details went unnoticed or unheeded, but it does little to foster the lesson we want them to...
Rethinking Toughness
RETHINKING TOUGHNESS I have been thinking a lot about fitness lately. I hit a phase of life where I consciously started to consider the need to take care of myself. Past 30, it gets harder to “cram” for a fitness test or drop that weight before getting into dress...
EDC
REAL TALK ON EVERY DAY CARRY One of the concepts I teach to police recruits their first day of the academy is the “Officer Safety Pyramid.” I didn’t come up with this idea (it’s part of the AZ POST curriculum), but the premise is that each side must be balanced to be...