jpaynter
11-13-2008, 11:38 AM
Hello all, I am writing this post to request feedback on some interesting student actions during scenario training. I am a DT instructor at a police department in Washington State. I have been coordinating our scenario training since 2006. After attending the TATSOL RBT instructor course put on by Mr. Murray, I have been working with the DT, Firearms and SWAT instructors at my agency to begin instituting Mr. Murray's feedback model & protocols.
This year we presented a scenario modeled on the Dinkheller incident and a non-lethal incident that presented the student officer with an aggressive subject.
Many students were successful in both scenarios and used appropriate tactics and and use of force decisions. However, the common error present was a long period of hesitation prior to using force. In our recreation of the Dinkheller incident, many officers allowed the suspect to slowly load a rifle, chamber a round, and shoot at them before they responded. Several officers were verbally negotiating with the suspect as they were being shot. The commentary I received from the monitors of this scenario stated that they saw better results when student officers were confronted with a fast-moving ambush than with slow deliberate actions by a suspect.
In the non-lethal scenario, we saw similar errors being made-officers would be very slow to respond to aggression. During several repetitions, the actor would slap or poke the student officer several times while exhibiting aggressive posturing. The student officers would not respond until forced by circumstances (grappling attack).
I was the exercise controller for the non-lethal scenario, and if the officer hesitated for an extensive period of time I intervened. If the intervention was only short duration, I let the scenario play out, then in the debrief I would put the officer back at the hesitation point and talk them through a more timely response.
My concerns are:
Some officers are exhibiting a fatal tendency toward hesitation and reluctance to use force even when the necessity is made obvious.
My questions for this community are:
1. How are you integrating decision making into your training?
2. Are you seeing simiilar issues with hesitation?
3. At what point is administrative action necessary?
4. How are you using classroom training to address this issue?
5. Why would officers hesitate less when a threat is more dynamic?
This year we presented a scenario modeled on the Dinkheller incident and a non-lethal incident that presented the student officer with an aggressive subject.
Many students were successful in both scenarios and used appropriate tactics and and use of force decisions. However, the common error present was a long period of hesitation prior to using force. In our recreation of the Dinkheller incident, many officers allowed the suspect to slowly load a rifle, chamber a round, and shoot at them before they responded. Several officers were verbally negotiating with the suspect as they were being shot. The commentary I received from the monitors of this scenario stated that they saw better results when student officers were confronted with a fast-moving ambush than with slow deliberate actions by a suspect.
In the non-lethal scenario, we saw similar errors being made-officers would be very slow to respond to aggression. During several repetitions, the actor would slap or poke the student officer several times while exhibiting aggressive posturing. The student officers would not respond until forced by circumstances (grappling attack).
I was the exercise controller for the non-lethal scenario, and if the officer hesitated for an extensive period of time I intervened. If the intervention was only short duration, I let the scenario play out, then in the debrief I would put the officer back at the hesitation point and talk them through a more timely response.
My concerns are:
Some officers are exhibiting a fatal tendency toward hesitation and reluctance to use force even when the necessity is made obvious.
My questions for this community are:
1. How are you integrating decision making into your training?
2. Are you seeing simiilar issues with hesitation?
3. At what point is administrative action necessary?
4. How are you using classroom training to address this issue?
5. Why would officers hesitate less when a threat is more dynamic?