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- Only You Can Prevent An Ambush!
- Cops Worst Enemy...Themselves?
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- Beware of the Tweaker
- Defending Your DUI Case
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Welcome to the first issue of The Backup Law Enforcement Newsletter. It is our primary goal to provide you with concise-but-useful training tips that will apply to your daily police work. As you know, our training instructors are leaders in their fields. These articles represent only a small sampling of the training in our outstanding library of law enforcement courses and are provided at no cost to you. The newsletter is free of charge, so please feel free to forward it to your fellow officers.
Further, as most of you know, we have recently become a part of Blackwater Worldwide. We are excited about our expanded role and resources we now have to provide outstanding training for law enforcement. Our fundamental belief remains intact: Law enforcement officers deserve the world’s best training for wearing the badge. We pledge to do our best to continue to provide that. We encourage you to take full advantage of our free training program. You can find out more or order courses at our website: www.TheBackup.com.
Keep your head down. Stay Safe.
Rick Gallia
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It is far more likely that you will be ambushed as a police officer rather than in a gun situation where you are shot with your own weapon. Statistics indicate approximately 18% percent of officers killed are murdered in ambush situations, yet most officers never receive any training in counter ambush tactics These cold statistics should make you realize the prevalence of ambush and the possibility it could happen to you or your fellow officers. Many officers caught in ambush situations have survived because of good training and immediate, aggressive action. Officer ambush is a reality and it is crucial that you are trained to survive it.
Ambush avoidance is something that can be accomplished. There are certain tell-tale signs to recognize that there may be a problem. Officers by themselves in rural areas are often targets. In an ambush, the suspects want you to believe that you are not in a threat situation. If responding to a call, it would most likely be a stolen property or burglary report call. When responding to these low grade calls, drive by the location first. Look for anything unusual. If it is a burglary report call, the house should be well lit signifying the victims are looking through the house to determine what has been stolen. If the house is dark, be aware. Trust your instincts and call for backup if needed. After driving by, park in an unpredictable area and walk a route that is not predictable. Be observant. Take that additional 60 seconds when responding to a call and protect yourself against potential ambushes.
A well planned ambush involves a ‘kill zone’. If the only way out of the kill zone is by driving over or through the ambushers, then do it! An aggressive reaction of any kind will give you a momentary advantage. Ambushers that are counter-attacked by a target will very often panic, and their tactics and organization will suffer. Never stop in the kill zone. In an emergency situation, it is a reflective response to stop immediately. However, when an ambush is organized, their operational focus is that you will die in the kill zone. They will not be prepared when you do not go down, so it will disorient the attackers and destroy their momentum. Preparation is the key.
If you are caught in an ambush and your vehicle is disabled, you need to exit the vehicle as quickly as possible because it will continue to draw fire. To exit the vehicle while under fire, crouch down in the vehicle and open the door on the side of the vehicle away from the ambushers. It stands to reason the ambush may well be placed on the driver’s side of the vehicle for easier targeting of the driver, so you may have to exit the passenger side. Keep that in mind as you equip cars and place your gear in the front seat. The path between you and the passenger door needs to be relatively clear in case a hasty retreat is necessary. Once it is determined which door you will exit, slide out of the seat onto the ground. Use the front tire and engine area for cover while you determine the nearest, safest cover. Make your move and then immediately start searching for safer cover. Use the military process of breaking contact in which you will create a base of fire to disrupt an enemy’s tactics in order to escape to better cover.
Your survival relies on your ability to recognize dangerous situations. Remember, you cannot predict when or where a threat is lurking but by being aware, you may be able to prevent an ambush. Sadly, officers continue to fall victim to fatal ambushes. Make sure you are practicing officer safety techniques daily and continue to prepare yourself and your fellow officers for the imminent dangers that can lurk around any corner.
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The job of any law enforcement officer is to keep the streets safe. In order to do this, sometimes the amount of force used on a suspect can result in death. Without effective counseling or recovery stages following these critical incidents, an officer is very susceptible to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). According to the National P.O.L.I.C.E Suicide Foundation, the number of deaths due to suicide is 2 to 3 times the number of line of duty deaths among law enforcement agencies and emergency workers. Your ability to protect and serve falls not only on your ability to protect the citizens, butalso your partner or fellow officers. You may acknowledge this problem, but would you do anything to stop it? The widely held code of silence and shame prevents officers from seeking the help they require, and the same code of silence could prevent you from speaking up when you see your colleague in need. You rush to the aid of several citizens daily and put your life on the line to help them. Yet, when you notice a fellowofficer isolating themselves, relying on alcohol and drugs, appearing overwhelmed, or crying you casually walk by and ignore them. After all, why make an uncomfortable situation worse? You may attend a 21-gun salute and mourn a colleague killed in the line of duty, yet you will stand silently when your participation could prevent your colleague from occupying the next grave. There is no memorial for cops who take their lives - there is no acceptance. It is your duty to recognize this ever-growing epidemic and offer aid to fellow officers. Stand up and protect those in need. Whether it is your fear of addressing the issue or your fellow officers' fear of admitting this disorder, addressing the issue is imperative if change is to occur.
Post-traumatic stress disorder can affect an officer psychologically as well as physiologically. Changes that can be seen from an officer suffering from PTSD include anxiety, irritability, depression, insomnia, and many other physical problems. When faced with human misery day after day, compounded with a critical event involving the use of deadly force, an officer may begin to doubt humanity. Feelings of paranoia, guilt and fear can ultimately drive an officer to take his own life.
Once an officer is engaged in a use-of-force incident, certain responses or stages are noticed that you can help him/her through. It is crucial that you pay attention to your colleague during this time and offer help if needed.
Exhilaration: The exhilaration stage generally includes the feeling of satisfaction at having survived a life-threatening situation. This stage, lasting minutes or hours, helps erase any self-lingering doubt about his/her own survival skills or ability to defend themselves or others.
Remorse: Following the rapid onset of relief and gratefulness typical of the exhilaration stage is the remorse stage. Human mortality sets in and the officer may struggle with the emotions of having survived and the actions that were required in order to maintain that survival. The guilt may be compounded by the relief and initial exhilaration felt in themoments following the incident. This stage can last days, weeks, or months, perhaps never fully dissipating.
Acceptance: The final stage the officer moves into is the rationalization and acceptance stage. In order for them to move past the remorse stage, they must come to terms with their actions.
Moving through these stages can be hard for an officer to do alone. Allowing your colleague the opportunity to express his/her feelings of guilt and grief is very crucial. One of the main reasons they may be hesitant to ask for help is that he/she does not want to be perceived as weak. By removing this feeling and offering a helping hand and open heart, you can save the life of your fellow officer. If your colleague has witnessed or been part of a critical incident, be alert to the stages that will follow and offer any help if he or she appears that they are struggling. If just one of your colleagues can be saved, then it is worth any effort that is made.
The information in this article was taken from The Backup’s free law enforcement course Use of Force.
Click HERE for more information or to order.
Written by staff member Rachel Rogers |
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In 2006, alcohol was responsible for an average of 1 death every 30 minutes. Inthe efforts to keep drunk drivers off our nation’s roadways, you will find that the ability to prosecute a DUI following the arrest can be very complex. When your case reaches court, you will find yourself defending your DUI case. Defense attorneys will attack you with questions regarding theStandardizedFieldSobrietyTest and you must be prepared to recognize and prepare yourself against such attacks.
In preparationfor your case, remember that Defense attorneys will argue that SFSTs do not measure driving impairment and that your opinion is subjective in nature. Although your opinion may be subjective, as an officer, you are considered an expert at identifying impaired drivers and are generally allowed opinion testimony in DUI cases. The SFSTs that you conducted are merely components of probable cause determination that a person was under the influence of alcohol while driving and are preceded by other forms of evidence to support your conclusion. You did not conduct the SFSTs to determine the drivers' driving ability; youwere using this test as a means of measuring the impairment due to the presence of alcohol, another drug, or a medical condition.
The defense will also argue that officers should not expect drivers under the influence to follow their orders during the instructional phase of SFSTs because there is evidence that 75 percent of the public does not even follow recommendations of their doctors in matters of their personal health. Although this may be factual, the difference is that when conducting the SFSTs, you are not recommending this person follow your instruction, you are giving an order. There is a substantial difference between failing to comply with orders versus refusing to follow instruction.
You pull someone over that is swerving and conduct a SFST which includes the HorizontalGazeNystagmus (HGN) and the driver fails. In court, serving as the prosecution’s chief witness, you are going to be attacked with several questions from the defense counsel. Were you, the officer, setting out to prove that the person you saw swerving was indeed a “drunk driver” and biased with that opinion before he/she was contacted? Is your HGN testimony unreliable given that you are not an expert in the field of neural ophthalmology? Was the subject distracted during the HGN test due to environmental conditions, such as traffic driving by? If so, were you able to discriminate the HGN from this otherwise innocent conduct? At the point of conducting the HGN test, it should be apparent if the subject was distracted by environmental conditions. These questions, along with others, are the most common defense attack aimed towards the arresting officer. Of course you were predisposed that this person may be drinking and driving after you noticed that person driving erratically and swerving down the road. However, your opinion prior to contacting the subject does in no way constitute a bias on your part. When conducting the SFSTs, you are simply determining whether or not there is evidence for probable cause that this person was driving under the influence. You are not an expertin neural ophthalmology. However, you are an expert at identifying impaired drivers, and with the help of the HGN test, you have more evidence that this person was under the influence.
The process of making a DUI arrest and successfully prosecuting it are complicated. The next time you are charged with DUI detection, beware of defense challenges andaddress them in a proactive manner.
The information in this article was taken from The Backup’s free law enforcement course Driving Under the Influence.
Click HERE for more information or to order.
Written by staff member Rachel Rogers |
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Some of the nation’s most horrific, violent crimes are attributed to methamphetamine use, which triggers paranoid frenzies in many of its users. It is important to remember how to deal with an individual that may be under the influence of methamphetamine. With the growing number of methamphetamine users, chances you will run into one are very likely. In your profession, it is critical that you be well-informed and prepared for this volatile drug abuser.
One of the most dangerous stages of methamphetamine abuse is tweaking. The abuser is driven into a severe depression, followed by extreme paranoia, belligerence, and aggression. Finally, the abuser collapses from exhaustion, only to awaken days later to begin the cycle again. Ephedrine-based methamphetamine has a usage pattern unlike that of traditional methamphetamine. Several times more potent than its other forms, today’s methamphetamine produces a reaction far more severe than even crack cocaine, with sleepless binges lasting up to fifteen days. Tweakers often behave or react violently and unpredictably, which intensifies if alcohol or another depressant is used in conjunction with meth. The tweaker craves more of the drug, but no dosage will bring back the initial high, which causes frustration and leads to unpredictability and potential for violence.
A tweaker can appear normal: eyes can be clear, speech concise, and movements brisk. However, a closer look reveals the person’s eyes are moving ten times faster than normal, the voice has a slight quiver, and movements are quick and jerky. A tweaker will be very uncomfortable and often will take a depressant to ease the feelings associated. These physical signs are more difficult to identify if the tweaker is using a depressant. Tweaking is the most dangerous stage of the methamphetamine abuse cycle and detaining a tweaker alone is not recommended.
Perhaps one of the most dangerous situations for first responders is confronting a tweaker. In this state of mind, hallucinations are common and your words and actions can easily be altered. Extreme paranoia combined with agitation can make law enforcement officers the target for violent outbursts and attacks. An officer in uniform is seen as a threat and any movement or bright lights can cause the tweaker to misinterpret the actions and react violently. A tweaker who falls silent is extremely dangerous. Silence often means his confused, illogical thoughts have collided with reality, and anyone present, particularly a recognized authority figure, can become part of the tweaker’s paranoid delusions.
No officer wants to be the inadvertent trigger of a paranoid, lethal attack from a person high on methamphetamine. Officers must know what to do and what not to do when they are face to face with a potentially violent drug user.
The information in this article was taken from The Backup’s free law enforcement course Clandestine Meth Labs.
Click HERE for more information or to order.
Written by staff member Rachel Rogers |
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The Backup Training Corporation
301 North 3rd Street, Coeur d'Alene, Idaho 83814
Call Toll-Free (800) 822-9398 | Phone (208) 765-8062 | Fax (208) 765-1059 |
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