Archive for Hostage Situations
Police Training and Real Life Shootings: Move!
Posted by: | CommentsOne of the things that really gets me upset about a lot of the firearms training given to police officers, is the concept of a static officer vs. a static target. You know the training I mean: the officer stands on the line, waits for the command, draws his firearm, and shoots a pre-determined number of shots at a piece of paper. This is supposed to demonstrate that the officer is proficient with a handgun. In reality, it just shows the officer can, in low stress conditions, put holes in a piece of paper that is not moving and not shooting back.
A real deadly force encounter is likely to be very dynamic: the officer should be moving, the perp will be moving, various innocents may be moving in the area, and there will be all sorts of inanimate objects that may be cover…or just trip you as you move. How you train will dictate how you perform when the bullets start flying.
As an example of good technique, view the video below. On November 15, 2007, Altamonte Springs, FL police officers responded to a reported robbery of a hotel near Interstate 4. For those that are unfamiliar with the area, this is just outside of Orlando.
A 10-year veteran officer observed and attempted to stop a red Ford Focus that matched the description of the vehicle that had left the scene of the robbery. As the police officer approached the car, the passenger opened fire. The driver, who was kidnapped by the passenger, fled from the car. The officer returned fire and struck the suspect multiple times, ending the threat.
What I think is important about this video is the use of movement. The officer assumes a solid isosoles stance, and then moves laterally while engaging the shooter. The suspect on the other hand, remained mostly static, as he was inside of a car and could not move off the officer’s line of fire. The end result? The officer was not hit, but the suspect was hit multiple times.
I don’t know if Altamonte Springs PD incorporates lateral movement into the firearms training, or if this officer practiced this independently, but it worked. Think seriously about incorporating movement into your practice sessions, and work with your department to incorporate movement into the department training program.
Stay safe!
Terrorists Next Plan: Killing Our Children at School
Posted by: | CommentsI don’t care what your stance on the President, Iraq, or the Middle East is. The fact of the matter is, there are trained terrorists who are intent on killing as many of our children as they can to further their “holy war.”
Don’t believe me? Read Terror at Beslan: A Russian Tragedy with Lessons for America’s Schools.
In 2004, terrorists took over a Russian school for three days. While the authorities attempted to negotiate, the terrorists forced the captive men and boys into slave labor to fortify the school against the inevitable attack. As the hostages completed their work, they would be executed.
Meanwhile, the women and girls were repeatedly raped and then killed.
When the counter-attack on the school began, the terrorists began wildly killing the children. Police and SWAT teams encountered barricades and booby traps, hindering their progress. It was a blood bath.
172 children were murdered.
In all, 338 people were killed, and some 700 were wounded. The number I always keep coming back to, though, is the 172 children who were murdered.
Don’t think it can happen here? You better think again.
There are terrorists training right now to do even worse in the US of A. There is credible intel that indicates some of them have already made there way into the county (across our southern border, in case anyone in Washington is listening.) They are implementing the lessons they learned during the attack on the Russian school.
Al-Qaeda has publicly stated they will kill 2 million American children. Operations in Afghanistan have recovered videotapes of terrorists training to overrun schools. These tapes include the terrorists giving orders in English and killing children.
Here is what an attack may look like in this country:
The terrorists will strike multiple schools at the same time, so law enforcement and military resources are unable to focus on a single event. Terrorists have already begun scouting targets, and will continue to do so right up to the events. Terrorists are seeking the best sites that combine:
- states without citizen CCW permits
- states without a gun/hunting tradition
- jurisdictions that do not issue rifles to their officers
- rural or other geographically isolated areas to slow police response
- schools without SROs
Expect to encounter car bombs, or similar IEDs, in the parking lots or other areas that responders may set up in. We saw the same thing in Atlanta (although a much smaller scale) when Eric Rudolph set up secondary devices to hit public safety officials as they responded to the initial bombs.
Killing School Resource Officers will, of course, be part of the initial goals. In our “gun free zones,” SROs are likely to be the only initial threat to the terrorists.
Negotiating will only give the terrorists more time to fortify their position, and kill more children.
The terrorists have learned their lessons, and are advancing in their plans. What have we learned?
There are a lot of things that departments can do to increase our ability to detect and react to these threats. The sad truth is, few, if any, local governments will adequately prepare for these dangers. We will lose our children, and many good cops will die trying to save them. I believe any of us would willingly give our own lives to protect innocent children. What angers me is that our political leaders refuse to allow us the training and tools to save as many as we can.
