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Falling Bullet Protection

by Randall

January 4th, 2012

A 12 year old boy in Ruskin, FL was struck in the head by a falling bullet on New Year’s Eve. He was outside enjoying the evening with his family when he collapsed in the front yard.

The family did not hear nearby gunfire, only fireworks. When they rushed to the boy, he had blood coming from his nose and mouth. Family members did not know he was shot. They took him straight to a hospital.

It was theorized by the Hillsborough County, FL Sheriff’s Office that the bullet which critically injured the boy was fired from miles away. Media reports ironically call these shots “celebratory gunfire.” I think that is in poor taste.

Categories Firearms, Officer Safety
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Video Combats Public Myths About Police Shootings

by Force Science Institute

December 29th, 2011

Photo courtesy of Lewisha Jones

In a unique production assisted by the Force Science Institute, law enforcement authorities in an Oregon county have created an online video that explains to civilians the realities of officer-involved shootings and counters prevalent myths fostered by Hollywood fantasies.

In 17 minutes, the program ranges from addressing why officers don’t try to shoot knives out of the hands of attackers to how cell phone and dash-cam recordings can significantly distort impressions of deadly force encounters. In all, the production tackles 7 persistent misconceptions that often lead to unjust accusations of wrongdoing regarding police use of force and provides scientific insights into the true dynamics of life-or-death confrontations.

Categories Firearms Training, Legal Issues, Officer Safety, Video Training
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Don’t Take a Knife to a Gun Fight

by Bryan Avila

December 14th, 2011

As the saying goes, you don’t take a knife to a gun fight…

Regardless of what job you have, you always need to make sure that you have the right equipment for the job at hand. After over a decade working in the Law Enforcement community, I am still surprised that most of us do not have the tools necessary for the job that faces us every day. These tools can be either abstract tools or concrete tools (no, not the cement type…).

Lets start off with the abstract tools. How many people do you know that do not know the policies and procedures of your agency the way that they should? Exactly my point. When we do not know the policies and/or procedures of the agency that we work for, we are setting ourselves up for failure. Crash and Burn. Unemployment line. This is probably the single most important thing that we need to know about our jobs.

Categories Officer Safety
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Vigilance in Patrol

by Randall

December 13th, 2011

A Virginia Tech police officer was murdered last week. I reviewed the traffic stop scenario, as I knew it, at Readoff to my officers. A gunman had appeared out of nowhere. “Watch everyone,” I implored. “Everyone is in play.”

About an hour later, we had an armed robbery call. A K9 perimeter was set and my dog guys responded to the scene.

A black male had robbed a victim at gunpoint and fled on foot. Before the canine even came out of the car, a second armed robbery was reported six blocks north. Same suspect, same description.

K9′s moved to that location. The outer units sat tight. From two blocks away from where I was, a perimeter car radioed that a white male with a gun was approaching his car!

Categories Officer Safety, Patrol
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Training The Mind

by Bryan Avila

December 6th, 2011

It takes the average person 1000 repetitions of doing something for it to become muscle memory. In other words, we don’t have to think about what we are going to do, we just do it. But when it comes down to our minds, do we really do the same thing?

While it is true that most of us do not have the time to sit there and practice our response to a scenario 1000 times, nothing says that we can’t think about what are response will be when we are faced with a situation. Think about the amount of time that we have to think throughout the course of our day: in the shower, cooking (or waiting for our order at the drive thru), waiting in line, driving (not so safe but we still do it anyway), in the bathroom…

Categories Officer Safety
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