Context in Use of Force

FAST TRANSIENTS THE TACTICAL TANGENTS BULLETIN CONTEXT IN USE OF FORCE DECISIONS 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...
No-Knock Search Warrants

No-Knock Search Warrants

FAST TRANSIENTS THE TACTICAL TANGENTS BULLETIN   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...

Trauma Updates 2018

FAST TRANSIENTS THE TACTICAL TANGENTS BULLETIN 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...

What Signal Are You Sending?

FAST TRANSIENTS THE TACTICAL TANGENTS BULLETIN 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...

Public Relations: You’re doing it wrong.

FAST TRANSIENTS THE TACTICAL TANGENTS BULLETIN 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...

Shoot or No-Shoot?

FAST TRANSIENTS THE TACTICAL TANGENTS BULLETIN   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...