- Supply The Why: Difficult Conversations Season 4 Episode 3 Policing, Leadership and the Future
- Project Sapient Podcast E13: Leader or Boss?
- Embedding Our Values: Never a Better Time Than Now
- Difficult Conversations by Supply The Why Season 3 Episode 3 Warriors, Guardians or Are They One and The Same?
- Wellness for Warriors - Two amazing human beings who have been through so much, and go above and Beyond
- When One of us is Murdered: The Darkness A Project Sapient Podcast
- Project Sapient Podcast: Sheepdogs. HybridWolves. Crybabies | A Predator Hunting Predators
- "Supply The Why" Great Podcast Episode on Police Reform, Use of Force, Training and Development Discussed by a Great Panel
- Police Leadership: On Humility and the Dangers of Hubris
- Be You: Humility, Strength of Character and Swallowing Our Ego and Being Authentic Is Crucial To Sound Leadership
- Been Away From My Blog For a While...Time to Get Back At It!
- Supply The Why Doing Great Work Be Sure to Check Out This Episode
- Introduction to Scenario Learning: Guest Post Series with Michael Barr
- Auftragstaktik in One Simple Diagram by Chet Richards
- "Leaders Are Teachers": Great Insights on Leadership and Developing Your People from The Mentorship Forum
- Great Review Over at the The Mentorship Forum of My Favorite Resource on Developing Adaptability "Raising The Bar"
- Rethinking the Traditional Teacher-Student Relationship in Conflicts
- Command and Control During a Disaster: Podcast
- The Evolving Warfighter Sits Down with Don Vandergriff and Talks Mission Command
- Developing and Preparing Cops for the Adaptive Challenges of The Street: Instructors Roundtable Podcast Episode
- Unreflective Speed of Action...Do You Think Its Time Policing Reflects on the Tactical Influence of Time?
- Break It Down Show Podcast: Don Vandergriff - Mission Command, Trusting Your People, To Win
- I See You...Back Up! On The Call to Win in Crisis and in the Aftermath to Win in Life
- Technological Negation of Human Sexual Dimorphism: A Guest Post by Franklin C. Annis, EdD
- Guest Post Home Security Guide from Bank Rate
- Commonwealth Police Legacy Program of Instruction: Sound Decision Making for Cops
- Outstanding In Your Face and Much Needed Book Policing and It's Leaders Can Learn From
- THE TRUTH BEHIND RACIAL DISPARITIES IN FATAL POLICE SHOOTINGS: Great Research Every Cop and Every Citizen Should Read.
- Thought on Discipline: A Great Podcast Series from All Marine Radio, Every Police Leader Should Listen To
- Gary Klein – Cognitive Psychologist, Studies Decision Making in Crisis on The Break It Down Show..Outstanding Episode
- Tactical Decision Making Facilitation Guide Maj McBreen: The Lessons Transfer to Police Instruction as Well
- 4th Generation Warfare Interview and Yes There Are Lessons for Policing
- Keys to Training Excellence: Evidence Based Research Policing Can Use
- Adopting Mission Command: Developing Leaders for a Superior Command Culture by Don Vandergriff
- Lead Yourself First: Inspiring Leadership Through Solitude: Book Review
- PODCAST: Tactical Decision Games with Bruce Gudmundsson and Don Vandergriff
- Podcast: Human Factors and Officer-Involved Shootings
- Donald Robertson - Stoicism and Thinking Like a Roman Emperor
- Dr John Sullivan and MAJ John Spencer - The Complexity of Modern Urban War
- Great Podcast: The Courageous Police Leader – Combating Cowards, Chaos, and Lies
- Recommended Reading: Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World
- Another Approach to Tactics Guest Post by Bert DuVernay
- LYNCH & KENNEY: react to clips of LtGen Van Riper’s “On Discipline” interview on All Marine Radio
- Outstanding Interview: ON DISCIPLINE: LtGen Paul K. Van Riper, USMC (ret)
- The Learning Insurgency: It’s an Evolution, not a Revolution By Donald E. Vandergriff
- On Policing a Free Society Episode 3: Toxic Bosses
- On Policing a Free Society Episode 2: Repairing Dysfunction in Police Organizations
- On Policing a Free Society Podcast: Episode 1 Dysfunctional Organizations and Their Impact On Response
- On Policing a Free Society with Fred Leland A New Podcast Coming in 2019
- Making Police Training Stick...and Learning How to Learn
- A New Conception of War: John Boyd The U.S. Marines and Maneuver Warfare
- Utilizing The Case Method: Some articles by Bruce Gudmundsson to Help Shed Some Light on How Too
- Use of Force Policy: Dispelling the Myths by Lexipol
- How to Make a Small Unit Decision Forcing Cases by Bruce Gudmundsson
- Facilitating Learning a Hybrid Of Methods to Effective Police Officer Development
- Why The OODA Loop Is Forever By Dan Grazier
- 15 Tips to Remember when Promoting a Growth Mindset in the Classroom: A Guest Post from USA Test Prep
- New Edition of Boyd’s Discourse on Winning and Losing by Grant Hammond
- My Book Review: On Tactics by B. A. Friedman
- Of Garbage Cans and Paradox: Reflexively Reviewing Design, Mission Command, and the Gray Zone:
- On Tactics: An Interview with B.A. Friedman
- Podcast Part 2 from Professional Military Education: John Boyd, Maneuver Warfare, and Marine Corps Doctrinal Publication-1
- Podcast from Professional Military Education: John Boyd, Maneuver Warfare, and Marine Corps Doctrinal Publication-1
- Walk,Sacrafice, Work ...Always Hungry Never Satified! What it Takes to Fight Complacency
- The Ten Deadly Errors, Plus...Failure to Learn, Failure to Anticipate and Failure to Adapt
- Turning Tragedy into Victory...We Must Start APPLYING LESSONS LEARNED
- Police Responses Demands Constant and Repeated Action...Throughout the Tactical Encounter
- All Police Actions Take Place in an Atmosphere of Uncertainty
- Adapt or Die: The Call for Police Reform...Is It Reasonable or Necessary?
- Force Science Assesses Proposed “Necessary” Deadly Force Standard
- Special Tactics Online Course Intro
- LESC is Honored to be Part of Special Tactics New Online Training Academy and Full-Featured, Professional Networking Site
- Leading Discussions and Facilitating Better Training Outcomes
- Police Leaders Mentoring and Coaching Their People: the Cornerstone to Top Performance in Crises
- Research: Adaptive Skill as the Conditio Sine Qua Non of Expertise
- Developing Adaptive Expertise: A Synthesis of Literature and Implications for Training
- How the Germans Defined Auftragstaktik: What Mission Command is - AND - is Not by Don Vandergriff
- Avioding Hostilities is the Goal But Sometimes to Gain The Advantage Reasonable Force Must Be Used
- Navigating Chaos: How to Find Certainty in Uncertain Situations
- The Protector Ethic: Morality, Virtue, and Ethics in the Martial Way
- Police Ethos:The Warrior and Guardian Mindset Are They Not One In the Same?
- Neighborhood Watch is Homeland Security at the Most Local Level
- Developing Police Sergeants: Getting the Outcomes and Measures of Effectiveness Right
- Col John Boyd's Patterns of Conflict Expanded to Policing Part 3: Disrupting an Adversary Using Soft and Hard Tactics
- Col John Boyd's Patterns of Conflict Expanded to Policing Part 2: Don't Just Be a Reactor..Be a Shaper Too!
- Col John Boyd's Patterns of Conflict Expanded to Policing Part 1
- Smart Tactics Takes Thinking Police Leaders...Leading Thinking Cops
- Wrestling With Delayed and Immediate Entry, Solo and Team Tactics...Are We Really Expecting All to Go as Rehersed?
- Guardian Joe: How Less Force Helps The Warrior
- Making It Safer: A Study of Law Enforement Fatalities Between 2010-2016
- Professional Reading and Development: It Doesn’t Give All the Answers, But It Lights What Is Often a Uncertain Path Ahead
- What Are The Force Multipliers That Allow Police Organizations to Operate at Rapid OODA Loop Tempos?
- Why Frontline Employees Should Make All Decisions:Lessons Police Can Learn From The Corporate Rebels
- What was Boyd Thinking and...What Can Policing Learn From It?
- Proper Mindset, Situational Awareness, Skill Proficiency and Physical Fitness: Force Multipliers of Great Value to Police
- Recognizing The Signs and Signals That Lead To Violent Acts At Our Schools and Making Collaborative Efforts to Prevent Them
- Adaptive Leader Program: Developing Thinking Leaders Who Lead Thinking Officers
- What Are Mission-Type Orders and How Do They Influence a More Effective Crisis Response?
- Tactics Are They More High Diddle, Diddle Straight Up the Middle the Devil Be Damned or Maneuver and Boyd Cycling an Adversary?
- There Are No School Solutions, Formulas or Recipes to School Shootings, so How Can We Develop Better Courses of Action?
- Great Break It Down Show Focus on School Shootings
- Developing Critically Needed Leadership: A Podcast on Mission Command Building Trust and Cohesion
- Powerful Facilitation: Two Critical Approaches
- Powerful Facilitation: Three Critical Competencies
- STARTING AND GROWING A NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH
- Adaptive Action: Leveraging Uncertainty In Your Organization a Book Review
- The Case Method In Developing Police: "Cold Calling" Will Have to Be Unambiguous
- The Biggest Obstacle to Tactical Progress… and How to Beat It
- Pete’s Combat Wish List Pt 2: Mental Models, Mistakes, Reflection and Learning on the Fly
- Pete’s Wish List for Combat Warriors. Perhaps Some Lessons for Poliicng as Well?
- What Affect Does the Human Dimension and Human Bias Have on Policing?
- What virtues are the most essential for a warrior to live by in order to prepare for, protect against and prevent violence?
- Exploring Criminal Justice Careers Check Out the Community for Accredited Online Schools
- A Great Break It Down Show Podcast on Interview and Interrogation: A Candid Straight Up Discussion
- Experiential Learning a Big Part of The New Recruit Officer Course In Massachusetts: Looks Promising!
- Run Out and Buy: Anatomy of a Warrior: The 7 Virtues All Warriors Must Live by to Successfully Protect and Serve
- Devising Solutions to Complex Police Problems: How Can We Get Better?
- Podcast with the Break It Down Show A Candid Discussion on Policing a Free Society, Mission Command and More
- Understanding Problems Range in Complexity and Designing Police Operations
- When it comes to Police Training, When is Good Enough, Not Good Enough?
- On The Job Training and Deliberately Framing Experience
- Police Officer Discretion…and Focusing Our Efforts on Better Outcomes
- Strength of Character: The Foundation of Working Together and Getting Things Done
- A free chapter from our new book now available on Amazon
- A Major Problem We Must Confront as Police Trainers and Students: How To Improve Performance?
- MISSION COMMAND THE WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN AND WHY An Anthology
- Conflict and Crisis are Full of Friction: The Force That Makes the Apparently Easy so Difficult
- PODCAST: Don Vandergriff on Military Personnel Reform: The Ideas Discussed Can (SHOULD) be Adapted to Policing As Well!
- Fire Nobody! by Dave Smith
- Teaching United States Marine Instructors New Tricks: Developing Adaptability Through Experiential Learning
- The Why was born out of pain
- Inspiring People to Lifelong Learning & Impacting Their Ability to Make Sound Decisions
- We Can't Just Use the Same Mental Recipes Over and Over Again: In Police Training We Must Challenge The Prevailing Mindset
- Reflection Leads to Deeper Learning...Put Each Day Up For Review
- We Must Train and Educate Within an Uncertain Environment to Prepare to Adapt
- Defining Policing 's Training & Education Challenge...Some Ideas On Achieving High Levels of Professionalism
- Defensive Tactics for Today's Law Enforcement
- Uploading John Boyd: The Legend Delivering His Opus is Online...and is as Relevant as Ever
- Make Many Mistakes and Learn
- Is Your Purpose in Life Based on Self Awareness and Strength of Character or Are You Just Following the Crowd?
- An Officer’s Principal Weapon is His Mind: Professional Development In Policing
- Outstanding Manual: Law Enforcement Close Quarter Battle: Urban Tactics for Individuals, Teams and Tactical Units
- The Art of Police Training is the Ability to Move Officers Through the Fog and Complexity of Human Interaction
- Brian Willis Interviews Yours Truly on Teaching Adaptive Leadership
- The Police Leader's True Work: Train Them, Trust Them, Let Them Do Their Job
- Sir William Slim on His Leadership Motto: No Details, No Paper, And No Regrets
- The Grid: Is There Better Ways to Approach Police Interactions?
- Teaching Officers How to Think verses Telling Them What To Think
- Develop a Philosophy and Understanding of Crime Fighting and Problem Solving That Considers Complexities of Policing
- Unwarranted: Policing Without Permission Book Review
- Thinking Leaders, Leading Thinking People is the Adaptive Leaders Focus
- Take Policing From a Training Culture to a Learning Culture
- Are You Serving Those You Lead?
- Vehicle Stops Strategies and Tactics: Being Safe and Effective Is About Options, Not Best Practices
- Teaching Adaptability and Making Marines More Effective Trainers
- Break It Down Show Podcast: Better Understanding Policing and Why it Matters
- The Last 100 Yards Series: High Diddle, Diddle Straight Up the Middle or Maneuver: How Are Your Tactics, Officer?
- Police officers I beg you to please run out and buy this book! What a great tactical resource!
- Second Episode in This Podcast Series with Complete Emergency Managment: Leadership in Public Safety
- Podcast: I sit down with George Whitney of Complete EM and discuss: Active Shooters and After Actions
- Sir Robert Peels, Nine Key Principles of Policing: Fair and Impartial Policing Defined Back In 1829!
- Herman Goldstein, Fundamental Objectives of Policing: Are They Relevant Today? I Say Yes!
- Shaping and Adapting: Using the Environment (The Last Hundred Yards) To Unlock the Power of Colonel John Boyd’s OODA Loop
- Informative Fair and Impartial Podcast: Do the legal rules for using deadly force, still make sense?
- Crisis Intervention Teams & Police Interactions with People with Mental Illness: Evolving Tactics That Make a Difference
- How Does The Last Hundred Yards, Enhance Tactical Responses to Crises?
- Complacency and False Sense of Urgency: Why We Fail to Take Advantage of The Last Hundred Yards?
- The Last Hundred Yards: Operate On Blind Luck or Win Consistently?
- My Good Friend Coach Kevin Kearns talks with 5th & 6th graders about Vision
- Keeping The Peace in a Free Society Let Us Not Forget Why We Do What We Do
- How Do We Better Assess and Grade Decision Making and Adaptability in Those We Train?
- Types of Cases
- Report: Deadly Calls And Fatal Encounters
- Developing Individuals with the Ability to Work Together Solving Real World Problems
- Five-Year Study of Police Officer Deaths: RoboCops or Guardians?
- The role of humility in the Socratic method by Bruce Ivar Gudmundsson
- Keeping the Peace
- Experiential Learning Defined
- How We Learn Versus How We Think We Learn
- Reducing Violence is About Not Grabbing a Gun
- Boston PD & Boston Red Sox: Full Scale Complex Operating Environment Training Exercise
- Scouts in Contact Tactical Vignettes for Cavalry Leaders A Book of Tactical Decison Exercises for Cavalry Leaders
- What is the Mission and Intent of Policing a Free Society?
- Sound of Silence A Tribute to Policing and All Those Who Serve The Homeland
- Problem-Oriented Policing: Where Social Work Meets Law Enforcement
- Thoughts on Policing a Free Society: Altering Public Expectations
- Thoughts on Policing a Free Society: Rethinking Widely Held Assumptions Regarding Police Fuction
- Thoughts on Policing a Free Society: Our Failure to Concern Ourselves...
- Thoughts on Policing a Free Society
- Simon Sinek: Why Leaders Eat Last
- 8 Tips to Keep Your Home Wireless Network Secure From Hackers: a guest post from Wichly Cazeau
- John Boyd's Patterns of Conflict Part 3
- Engaging The Community and Making Meaningful and Lasting Change
- The Pre-Class Preparation Pyramid By Bruce Ivar Gudmundsson
- We All Lose When it's Us Verses Them!
- Facilatating The Adaptive Leader Program at The Army ROTC Leadership Conference at Harvard University
- A Break It Down Show Pod Cast: Paying Criminal Not to Commit Crimes or is There Something More to The Story?
- Harvard ROTC Leadership Conference
- A Discourse on Policing a Free Society
- We Made the Mandatory Reading for the US Army MPs
- Patterns of Conflict Pt 2
- Hand in Hand Project, a new initiative promoting dialogue and interaction between local police officers and young people
- How May We…Rebuild the Bridge Between The People and The Police?
- Why Adaptability Trumps Hierarchy?
- Military Reform Through Education: From The Straus Military Reform Project, Something We In Policing Can Learn From
- In Building Trust, Actions…Speak Louder Than Words!
- Somewhere Along the Way
- Taking It Personally
- The Facts of the Case By Bruce Ivar Gudmundsson
- J.J. DID TIE BUCKLE Traits I live By
- On Fitness: Learn from my weakness, my mistakes, and my bad habits
- Don’t Do It Alone: Developing a Shared Sense of Destiny Requires We’re all on the Same Sheet of Music
- Recommended Reading List From The California Association of Tactical Officers
- Values For A New Millennium: A Book That Will Help Bridge the Gap Between People and The Police
- Teaching Adaptability…and Firearms Training
- Simon Sinek: Why Reciprocity Improves Mentor Mentee Relationships
- Felix Nader Discusses The Value of Workplace Violence Prevention
- Breaking Down Police Work and How To Win at Low Cost: Part 2 Podcast Break It Down Show
- Boyd: Adapting Isn't Good Enough
- Simon Sinek on the responsibility that leaders have to create environments where people are more productive,and inspired
- The Hunting Story - the meaning of human equality
- Ethical Warriors with Jack Hoban
- Emotional Intelligence: Re-Thinking Police Community Relations by Mark Bond
- Approaching LE with the 'What's important now?' perspective
- Staying in control when a suspect is aggressive
- 10 Overlooked Truths About Taking Action
- Warriors vs. Praetorian Guard – Which Mindset Fits You Best? By Mike Ox
- ITOA News: Articles By John Farnam, Patrick Van Horne, Jeff Chudwin, Don Vandergriff, Yours Truly and More
- The importance of mindset in policing with Chip Huth
- A Discussion on Police Work and How to Win At Low Cost, Connecting The People and Police Gap
- Be Passionate, Back Up and Empower Your People, and You Will Get The Culture Right
- Why Are Shared Visions So Important?
- Technical Skill as a Component of Creativity by Bruce I. Gudmundsson
- I Am Spartacus…No I Am Spartacus: Is Your Police Organization United?
- The Demand For Autodidacts – The Self-Taught in an Age of Shrinking Budgets by Patrick Van Horne
- It’s How You Say What You Saw by Patrick Van Horne
- The Path of Don Vandergriff: A Discussion On Leadership, Learning organizations and Adaptability
- The Newhall Incident: Failure, Adaptation and Success…Or Lost Opportunity? Published in the latest ITOA News
- NYPD’s New Strategy for Dealing with Stressful Interactions, Absurd or Realistic?
- The Mind Can Be Convinced But The Heart Must Be Won
- Imagine a Police Culture Where People Wake Up Every Day Inspired to Go to Work
- Open Letter to President's Task Force on Policing by Louis Hayes
- The Blame Game: Who @#$%ed This Up?
- Breaking Down the Stranglehold of Formality
- Boyd and Beyond: From Marine Corps University to FBI National Academy Boyd' Ideas are Expanding
- From The Art of Manliness: John Boyd’s Roll Call: Do You Want to Be Someone or Do Something?
- Pamela Meyer: How to spot a liar
- The Case Method Increasing the Efficiency and Effectiveness of Marine Education by Captain Paul Tremblay Jr USMC
- Simon Sinek: If You Don't Understand People, You Don't Understand...
- Using Official Histories as Quarries for Case Materials By Bruce I. Gudmundsson
- Left of Bang By Patrick Van Horne and Jason Riley
- The Most Dangerous Weapon in Law Enforcement by Brian Willis
- Sizing Up Situations Is A Skill, We Need To Develop
- Change the Culture If I could Only Change One Thing by Don Vandergriff
- The Five Learning Disciplines
- Using Complete Stories in Decision Forcing Cases by Dr. Bruce I. Gudmundsson
- Newhall Shooting: A Tactical Analysis
- Tactical Decision Games, Obscure Information and Generating New Ways to Thrive in the Climate of Chaos and Uncertainty
- Calling on Cops in Class: An Anecdote for Developing Character, Confidence and Sound Tactical Decision Makers
- Solving Tactical Dilemmas with Indirect Experience (Education & Training) and White Castle Cases
- Ugly Police Force: Misunderstandings of Law & Human Factors by Lou Hayes
- Design and Facilitate, Decision Making Exercises Using The Sandwich Metaphor
- Strategic Rifleman: Key to More Moral Warfare by H. John Poole
- Developing Teamwork, Leadership Skills and Decision Makers with Case Study's "Washington's Crossing"
- FBI Report: A Study of Active Shooter Incidents in the United States
- The Art of Manliness Discusses...The Tao of Boyd: How to Master the OODA Loop
- Courage: The Backbone of Leadership by Gus Lee
- A Police Officers thoughts on the “Militarization” of our police forces.
- Cops With War Toys: Militarizing police is the worst way to fight crime.
- “Just the facts Ma’am”
- Re-Imagine the Way We Lead!
- A Milestone in Boydian Theory at the Tactical Level
- CASE STUDY: Ferguson Missouri shooting incident and aftermath by Louis Hayes
- What is Leadership?
- Use of Force Investigations: a Manual for Law Enforcement
- Do You Know How to Get Fullfillment?
- How Great Leaders Inspire Action
- Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don't
- Adaptive Leadership Handbook, Reviewed [by Mark Safranski, a.k.a. "zen"]
- Have We Not Learned Anything From History? Don Vandergriff's Book Review on American Spartan
- How Do We Inspire Action?
- Book Review: Rubicon: The Poetry of War
- Book Review: American Spartan
- Command Culture: Officer Education in the U.S. Army and the German Armed Forces, 1901-1940, and the Consequences for WWII
- What are the Basics? Developing for Mission Command by Donald E. Vandergriff
- IN COMMAND AND OUT OF CONTROL
- Adaptive Leadership By Charles “Sid” Heal and John R. Engbeck
- Why good leaders make you feel safe
- Guardians vs. Warriors: What it Takes to Win at Low Cost
- After Action Review on The Christopher Dorner Incident
- Adaptive Leader Program
- Crisis Meta-Leadership Lessons From the Boston Marathon Bombings Response: The Ingenuity of Swarm Intelligence
- Outstanding piece! The Myth of Mission Command by Don Vandergriff
- Cops or Soldiers?
- Situational Assessments: Being Mindful of What’s Important Now!
- Convinced or Committed?
- Discipline: The Lost Art of Leadership
- How Do We Develop Adaptability?
- Improve the Work…Develop the People
- Incident Strategy and Tactics: The Baby Diaper Analogy
- Adaptive Leaders …Develop Strength of Character
- How About Some Empathy, Please?
- Get Into the Sandbox, Think and Play and Let’s Inspire… Adaptability
- Stoning The Gatekeepers: Is It Not Time Society Attempts To Better Understand Police Use of Force?
- First-Line Supervisors Do The Most Important Training
- Why Tactical Decision Games? Because They Challenge The Status Quo & Emphasize Tactical Options In Developing Courses of Action.
- Why Does Understanding The OODA Loop Matter to Cops?
- How Do You Develop Strength of Character and Adaptive Leaders?
- Adaptive Leadership Handbook: Innovative Ways to Teach and Develop Your People
- Don’t Fear Failure; Instead Make Failure Your Classroom
- In Forging Adaptability…Distinguish Technical Problems from Adaptive Challenges
- The Doctor in SWAT School (and What His Performance Says About Police Culture)
- Designing Law Enforcement: Adaptive Strategies for the Complex Environment by John A. Bertetto
- Guest Post: Toward a Police Ethos: Defining Our Values as a Call to Action by John Bertetto
- Adaptability is Key in Handling Crisis Situations…Be In Command and Out Of Control
- For Meaningful Lasting Results, Get Into the Weeds…and Identify Root Causes
- Want to get better and be safer? Debrief!
- How to Forge Adaptability in Police Leaders and Culture
- Adaptive Leadership is Purposeful Learning in Real Time
- Book Review: The Practice of Adaptive Leadership: Tools and Tactics for Changing Your Organization and The World
- Growing Leaders Who Practice Mission Command and Win the Peace, Lt. Col. Douglas A. Pryer, U.S. Army
- Achieving Greatness by Giving Control and Creating Leaders
- Choosing Adaptability by Gary Gagliardi and The Science of Strategy Institute
- The Review of Boyd & Beyond 2013…..
- Have You Thought About Why You Choose To Lead?
- Incident Command: the big picture by Louis Hayes
- Understanding the OODA Loop by Derek Stephens
- The Cops Amaze Me by Bob Lonsberry
- I Am An Optimist. It Does Not Seem Too Much Use Being Anything Else!
- Mike Rayburn Asks...What Makes A Good Street Cop?
- Fighting the good fight with moral clarity by Lt. Dan Marcou
- Are Gated Communities Really Secure?
- Top 25 Criminal Justice Blogs We made the list at # 3
- Incident Command: the team cohesion aspect of the SitRep
- Book Review: Always Picked Last: Conquering the Bullies: A Guide To Finding Your Way in Life…
- To Continuously Improve We Must Set Boundaries and Expectations
- Elite Performance...Takes WORK? Say it ain't so!
- Create Your Fantasy Island Organizational Culture by Tracey Richardson
- Have You Stopped a Car Today? Improving Patrols Tactical Effectiveness with Vehicle Stops
- Incident Command: Communicating the Situation and Location By Louis Hayes
- Incident Command: a problem-solving approach By Louis Hayes
- SWAT Cop Says American Neighborhoods Are 'Battlefields,' Claims Cops Face Same Dangers As Soldiers In Afghanistan
- Overmilitarization: Why Law Enforcement Needs to Scale Down Its Use of Military Hardware and Tactics By Evan Bernick
- John Boyd’s Art of War Why our greatest military theorist only made colonel. By William S. Lind
- Police militarization and rise of the warrior journalist by Lance Eldridge
- Strategic Studies Institute: Cartel Car Bombings in Mexico Authored by Dr. Robert J. Bunker, Mr. John P. Sullivan
- To Strengthen And Preserve Cohesion Your Values...Equal Their Values
- Another Must Read Book From Don Vandergriff: "The Path To Victory" Revised Kindle Version with a new foreword
- Safe Streets, Overruled By Heather McDonald of the City Journal
- Must Read Book On Leader Development, Updated Kindle Addition: Don Vandergriff's, Raising The Bar:
- Brian Willis Offers Great Info on Defeating...The Enemy Of Innovation
- Police militarization and the Ethical Warrior By Jack E. Hoban & Bruce J. Gourlie
- “A Way” To Develop a Toxic Leader: How We as Leaders Create Our Own Monsters
- The Guy Behind the Guy, Behind the Guy: A Case for Taking our Roles More Seriously
- Flatenning the Decision Cycle in Tactical Units
- Tactical Supervision: Coaches and Chessplayers: Guest Post By Louis Hayes
- To effectively function in the initial, chaotic stages of a crisis, develop adaptive leaders
- FEAR VS COURAGE: IT'S YOUR CHOICE By Danny Cox
- Skid Row Terrorist
- Col John Boyd: Question and Answer Video
- Great Piece on Adaptability by Brian Willis: The Dinosaur versus The Cockroach Training Model
- The Psychotic Militarization of Law Enforcement
- The Missing Piece of NIMS: Teaching Incident Commanders How to Function in the Edge of Chaos by Police Chief, Cynthia Renaud
- The Human Problem? by Frank Borelli an Officer.com article
- From Police One 3 techniques for controlling your brain with Chief Joel F. Shults, Ed.D.
- Great Article From Police One with Val Van Brocklin: How to create 'fierce followers' in law enforcement
- Deadly Force: Have We Lost Our Senses? Guest Post by Louis Hayes
- Tactical Philosophy 101 A Guest Post by Louis Hayes
- Leadership in Unconventional Crises
- Unconventional Crises, Unconventional Responses: Reforming Leadership in the Age of Catastrophic Crises and “Hyper complexity”
- JOHN BOYD WAS A PATRIOT, A MORAL LEADER, AND A BONAFIDE VISIONARY. AND YES, HE WAS A MAVERICK.
- Force Science Research Study: The Influence of Officer Positioning on Movement During a Threatening Traffic Stop Scenario
- Guest Post: Adaptive Decision-Making by Sid Heal
- “More Better,” Ideals, and To Be or To Do: Guest Post by Scott Shipman
- Learning Like an Expert: A Guest Post by Marshall Wallace
- What Represents a High Level of Professionalism?
- This Memorial Day Remember: The Path of The Warrior
- School Security: Sharing and Enhancing Best Practices
- Guest Post by Michael G. Moore: Boyd's Snowmobile ...or what made Alexander “The Great”
- Coffee Pots and Baseball Bats: Household Items Offer Protection
- Learning to Adapt With A Professional Reading Program
- Boyd and Beyond 2013
- Guest Post by Tyana Daley: Developing Law Enforcement Leaders and Nurturing Smart Thinkers
- Somewhere Between Born and Made: Where Good Leaders Come From
- Is Today Your Day?
- Guest Post by John Demand: “You look for the bomb…we look for the bomber”
- What Do OODA Loop’s Mean to the Street Cop, Wanting To Become “World Class” Tacticians?
- The Psychology of a Boston Marathon Terrorist: 10 Questions for a Retired Marine
- Watching Boston “Work Together” Made Me Proud to Be a Police Officer
- What Makes a "World Class" Tactically Proficient Peacekeeper?
- Tactical Decision Games to Increase Speed and Maturity of Problem Solving: The Lessons Learned
- The Path to Better Execution in Seeing, Understanding and Solving Complex Problems is a Learning Organization
- A Systemic Concept for Operational Design: a Robust Tool Law Enforcement Should Use in Preparing for Chaotic Crisis
- How shift debriefings can improve officer safety Published at P1
- Boyd and Beyond Boston 2013: Balancing Pursuasion and Force in The Moral, Mental and Physical Dimensions of Conflict
- Don Vandergriff, Discusses: Misinterpretation and Confusion: What is Mission Command?
- Huddling-Up To Acheive Successful Law Enforcement Outcomes
- Building Cohesive Law Enforcement Agencies That Can Decide In Crisis Situations
- Mistakes ultimately ended ex-LA cop's rampage
- Red Teaming The Workplace Violence Shooter and The "MR. Uncomfortable Factor"
- Top 30 Criminal Justice Blogs of 2012 : LESC is Number 5!
- Showing Up Is Overrated. Necessary But Not Nearly Sufficient. Can Taking An "Interest" In What You Do Enhance Performance?
- Handling Dynamic Encounters...Go Get Him, Or Set Him Up To Get Him...With An Adaptable Response
- Shift Debriefings: How Can We Be More Deliberate, More Disciplined, and More Thorough in our Approach to Learning?
- AOW Card Deck Lesson 6: Provoke Your Adversary’s Reaction
- Does Mass Violence Unfold Randomly and Chaotic or is There Hidden Order We Can Leverage in Our Prevention Efforts?
- Police One Column: 13 questions to answer in 2013: What has 2012 taught you about officer safety and effectiveness?
- Take Small Steps, Towards, Lifelong Learning In 2013
- Positive Adaptive Leadership...Tools and Tips and Critical Questions To Explore in 2013 Inspired by Many Of Those I Follow
- AOW Card Deck Lesson 5: Sheath Your Sword
- AOW Card Deck Lesson 4: Score A Small Victory Along The Way
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Wrestling With Delayed and Immediate Entry, Solo and Team Tactics...Are We Really Expecting All to Go as Rehersed?
Submitted by Fred on Fri, 04/27/2018 - 8:46pm.
I was out in the western part of Massachusetts teaching an in-service training class to a group of about 50 police officers. These cops are from small towns and often work their towns alone. No back-up immediately available! A conversation during class took place that sparked some debate on immediate versus delayed, solo versus team entry tactics and which is the best practice for dealing with ongoing threats such as, an active shooter, terrorist attack, or ambushes. Is immediate entry and a solo response always the way to go, or do 2, 3 and 4-man techniques still apply? What about cordon and wait for SWAT, will there ever be an adversary, time and place, where we ever use that technique again? I experienced my own biases arise on this topic that prompted me to do some self-reflection and write this post.
Let me start off by saying I am not against immediate and solo entry. There is indeed, a time, place and adversary where immediate entry and solo response is necessary. I just, recognize that its a dangerous option, only effective when we believe our entering alone can make a difference. I don't believe anyone would argue that the risks are much, much higher going it alone. I wrestle with the idea of responding solo, as the only option because someone says its the only way, to be effective, as if its some school solution that must always be used.
Are those responding using their observations, orientation and decisions that lead to the course of action we take or do we just do it because IT's THE WAY TO DO IT? Do those responding, understand WHY they are responding, the way they are? And if so do they know HOW to do it? Have we considered the difference between a spontaneous situation like and ambush and a progressively unfolding situation like a terrorist attack or active shooting? The ambush has us taking immediate action to get through or out of the kill zone and then deal with the threat. The terrorist attack or active shooting we respond into the kill zone to locate and address the threat. The ambush requires implicit action due to the surprise of the situation. The ambush or active shooting, requires more explicit decision making as we try to make sense of adversarial actions and develop a course of action to stop these types of threats.
In each of these examples I have described time is critical and life and death hinge on police stopping a threat. Being surprised by an ambush requires we act and react intuitively, without thinking. Tactics, techniques and procedures must be immediate. This is where stimulus response training comes in to play and why practice is so critical. As Mushashi said; "Either you will lead the enemy...Or he will lead you." But we must also remember decisions without actions are pointless. Actions without decisions are reckless. So to respond effectively, there must be a an understanding of implicit and explicit decision making when responding to ongoing deadly action so we understand the why behind the tactics, techniques and procedures we decide to use.
Most crisis decision making is made implicitly, because actual combative situations are extremely fast and demands you act and react without thinking, especially when closing with and adversary. Explicit decisions (rational thinking)are needed if you don't have an organizational climate built on mutual trust and a common outlook (mission and intent) for implicit decisions. You can't use implicit decisions (e.g. you don't know where the adversary is or your trying things, experimenting, probing, sensing to figure out what's is going on). A hint to future responders and those training and developing responders, everything we do does not entail stimulus response. Some actions require thinking such as whether or not to use delayed or immediate entries or to act individually or as a team. Have we considered that officers do not have to choose only one delayed or immediate entry. Rather than can employ the techniques in various combinations to fit the needs of the unique tactical situation. An officer may initially choose to move in solo cautiously, employing delayed entry and employing deliberate clearing techniques. If the situation changes or he hears shots being fired, the officer might shift to using immediate entry and emergency clearing techniques. Or a solo responding officer may enter from one side of a building and coordinate others responding to enter from different sides in an effort to swarm and converge on an adversary.
Research shows that when dealing with a new, complex, and confusing situation, effective responses, begin with carrying out lots of small experiments (decisions and actions) at high tempo. So we must quickly try to figure out what's going on (sense-making) via the observation and orientations, this means learning on the fly in real time and deciding on a course of action. Action requires we are able to do it. This is what the Boyd Cycle (OODA Loops) are all about. The OODA Loop is a model for manipulating time. With a time advantage you can: try more things, recover from mistakes and learn more quickly. You can make adversaries react to you and reshape the situation, improving effectiveness of the response. As the adversary(s) become fixated on you he spends less time focused on innocents. As Colonel John Boyd observed:
"In order for one to accomplish its goals, it may become necessary for them to, diminish their adversaries capacities for independent action. Deny them the opportunity to survive on their own terms, or deny them the opportunity to survive at all."
Boyd's words are packed full of wisdom yet, it is important we remember conflict is a two way street and that an adversary has his own Boyd Cycle and is trying to impose his own will on us. At its heart the Boyd Cycle (OODA LOOP) is extremely simple. In any form of conflict the side that can do the following three things better than its adversary will create opportunities to achieve decisive results:
- Keep its world view, or "orientation," most closely matched to the situation in the real world.
- Harmonize this orientation in real time throughout the responders. This means that not only does the boss have the big picture, so does everybody else and its up to date and accurate.
- Possess a range of actions or responses that it can intuitively and nearly instantaneously apply to nearly any situation. Again, this means actions at all levels of the response, and it means people taking the initiative, not waiting for commands.
When talking about whether to use delayed or immediate entry, we are not talking about a coffee break delay here, nor am I talking about we need to gather all information before we make a decision. We all know the consequences of, "paralysis by analysis." What I am speaking of is, taking just enough time to size up and make sense of the situation once arrived on scene. This delay does not mean we don't move towards the threat, although locating the threat is not as easy as turning a page in a book as some may have us believe.
Even with shots being fired there can be confusion and uncertainty as to the threats location. Confusion can come from the sounds echoing off of concrete walls and buildings, calls into the 911 center with conflicting reports as to where the threat or multiple threats possibly are. Yes, I believe we are duty and morally bound for a quick response when on going deadly action is taking place but, we must use principles and tactics that work and police must understand the why and when they will work and then be able to apply tactics to violent acts unfolding in real time. The key to doing this is Practice...the right kind of practice in realistic conditions!
“Anybody can perform a task that he or she already knows and understands. It’s when obscurity, doubt, and stress are interjected into the equation against the backdrop of survival that the creature of the unknown exposes us for who we are, not just what we know how to do.” ~ Jeff Boss, Navigating Chaos: How to Find Certainty in Uncertain Situations
A better understanding by patrol officers of tactical science is needed. Tactical science is the body of knowledge covering the principles associated with tactical operations and emergency responses. The current disconnect that troubles me, is all too often tactics are practiced as a skill set rather than an intuitive application of tried and true principles. Skill sets are contextual, and can be a recipe for disaster if applied in circumstances they were never intended. Principles are context free and provide insight and guidance to recognize the dynamic factors in play. In short they understand why they are applying the tactics they have chosen. Officers who understand WHY are more flexible in their thinking and more adaptable in their approach. Whether we operate with team tactics or solo tactics the decision to use either must be based on this understanding if we are to develop effective course of actions. The idea is that through increasingly more realistic practice and exercises, actions begin to flow intuitively and without delay. Then the trick is to incorporate wider and wider ranges of possible situations in our training and exercise programs so that the vast majority of time, appropriate actions flow smoothly and instantaneously from orientation.
"In military units, soldiers are encouraged never to operate alone. Also, the fact that military units rarely operate independently in elements smaller than a squad or section (approximately 9 soldiers) leaves little reason for them to practice single-person tactics. Law enforcement units, like SWAT teams, that specialize in CQB also typically bring a large force to the fight and often have numerous supporting assets such as snipers, helicopters and tactical vehicles. Thus, the scenario of a single SWAT officer having to operate alone is also relatively unlikely and often receives less attention.
However, for police officers responding to an emergency call, the chances of having to operate alone are quite likely. In these types of situations, backup is frequently unavailable or will not arrive in time. The officers who are forced to operate on their own face potentially the greatest risk, yet there are almost no tactical references (books, videos or classes) or training and development within policing that provide useful information on the subject of single-person tactics." ~Special Tactics, Single-Person Close Quarter Battle
To respond effectively individually an officer must have a highly developed tactical skill sets. So yes we must train in the skill sets and we must be very good at them! These tangible skillsets include, tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs) such as; how to approach and enter a structure, exterior maneuver considering streets, alleys and windows, entering structures, maneuver down hallways and into and out of rooms, clear rooms without entering (shallow entries or limited penetration), deep entry into rooms when necessary, navigating stairwells, accurately fire weapons while under attack, cover, concealment and movement, just to name a few. These tangible TTPs, along with an understanding of the tried and true intangible principles of maneuver that include the proper mindset, the ability to size up situations (sense-making), mutual trust (work in harmony to solve problems), focus of effort (attention control that allows for adaptability), and mission-type orders (decentralized control) that set the climate for operational success.
Active shootings or what I prefer to call "ongoing deadly action" require officers be adaptive in their approach, because adversarial methods have changed and police must once again adapt their responses to knife wielding attacks, vehicle born attacks, or whatever next imaginative way an adversary decides to use as a method or tool.
Adaptive challenges require adaptive action. These types of complex problems have no definitive way the form. Adversaries come in all shapes, sizes, ages, nationalities and skill levels. The posses unique ideologies, personal and sociopolitical viewpoints and posses different grievances, where anger, revenge, depression, anxiety and their lack of coping skills or resilience have them resorting to violence as a method to send their message.
Because there are no definitive ways these types of incidents form, there are "no stopping rules" the process of developing a course of action comes from understanding the actual situation you find yourself in today. Not yesterdays, last months, last years incident, matter. Todays situation does matter. How respond should not be looked at as right or wrong. Courses of action should be viewed as making things better or worse for those involved (innocents, responders and adversary), so there is no immediate or ultimate course of action. Courses of action will generate waves of consequences over an operational period that must be adapted too. The structure or building, the number of adversaries, number of innocents, are the innocents locking down, evacuating (or Both) or are innocents in the fight. Whether you respond as a team or, go it alone all these factors and more require we understand we must have sets of possible courses of action some predetermined some, ad hoc.
Ongoing deadly action is an adaptive challenge and each situation is essentially unique. Yes aspects of adaptive challenges have aspects or factors (patterns of conflict) that are common but they also have novelties that require unique courses of action. And these courses of action can be contested and there will likely be conflicting evidence or data for and against any course of action we can come up with by those both in and out of the arena.
When responding to "ongoing deadly actions" there are no optimal, best, right, smart, correct or school solutions. There are no silver bullets we can always use that are guaranteed to always work. Blending the cognitive ability to observe, orient, decide and act with the physical skill sets and tried and true tactical principles is required if we are to make a difference.
Gary Klein in his great work on recognized primed decision making has shown that when people are properly trained in this approach, decisions in the usual sense of comparing and selecting between alternatives are infrequent. This is just as well sense formal decision methodologies would only slow things down. It can not be emphasized to often that training and exercises intended to achieve intuitive and rapid actions must start with individuals but to be effective must soon involve the entire team across all departments and agencies. You fight, as the old military maxim goes. like you train.
What are cops to do when there is no back up available or is, so far away they will not arrive in time to make a difference in carrying out our mission to stop the threat and render aid? How does a police officer go it alone using individual tactics as he moves into and through a building or school under attack?
With all my talk above about decision making and adaptability, below are some things to consider when you have no choice but to go it alone. The folks from Special Tactics offer some insight of great value:
Single-person tactics are different from tactics developed for teams and multiple teams. The reason for this is the increased risk associated with operating alone. Even if you are very experienced in team-level operations, it may still take time for you to master the specific skills and movements needed for single-person operations. Team-level tactics are generally divided into “immediate entry” and “delayed entry” tactics. Immediate entry methods call for offensive, aggressive movement and were developed by elite military special operations forces for hostage rescue situations.
Delayed entry tactics are more common in the law enforcement community and are designed to minimize your exposure and maximize the benefits of cover and concealment. For single-person operations, delayed entry is generally a safer option than immediate entry. If you have a team behind you, it is possible to aggressively rush through a door to dominate a room. However, if you are operating alone with no support, it is dangerous to rush into a fight when the odds might not be in your favor.
Much of the debate in how we handle ongoing deadly actions stems around immediate versus delayed entry tactics. My premise is there should be no debate. Both options are on the table and even blend in tactical operations! The choice depends on the adversary(s), time and place as well as the capabilities of those responding.
"All four elements— physical, mental, emotional, spiritual— contribute to one’s daily living, how he or she feels, and, ultimately, how he or she performs. Varying levels of each are called upon based on the task at hand, but the capacity of each still exists. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, in his bestselling book Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Performance, says that to achieve optimal performance, one must merge behavior with intent." ~Jeff Boss, Navigating Chaos: How to Find Certainty in Uncertain Situation
When I talk of capabilities, I am not focused solely on the physical but the emotional, mental and spiritual capabilities as well. While the term definitely connotes capabilities of the physical sort, it is critical not to overlook the mental, emotional, and spiritual pieces, which comprise the larger puzzle of performance, in stressful situations such as responding to acts of violence. Preparation and readiness require we continually learn and develop these so that our behavior in crisis situations matches our intentions. There has got to be some thinking going on as we work our course of action and maneuver to stop an ongoing threat and winning these types of engagements.
What tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs) do we consider when we deciding to go it alone towards the threat?
Immediate entry techniques call for offensive, aggressive movement and were developed by military special operations forces for hostage rescue situations. Law enforcement officers may use immediate entry techniques when innocent lives are at stake or when it is critical to quickly overwhelm and dominate the adversary. Immediate entry calls for using surprise and speed to enter and penetrate the building or room immediately without taking the time to first evaluate the room from the outside. While sometimes necessary, immediate entry is generally more dangerous than delayed entry.
Delayed entry techniques are designed to minimize an officer’s exposure and maximize the benefits of cover and concealment. By employing delayed entry tactics you clear as much of a room or hallway as possible from the outside, before you actually make entry. Team-level tactics can also be divided into “deliberate” tactics and “emergency” tactics. The difference has less to do with speed and more to do with the level of care and attention applied to the clearing process. It is possible to execute deliberate tactics very quickly, as long as you are careful to clear each room and danger area completely. Essentially, when conducting a deliberate clear, you will not take any shortcuts. Emergency tactics are the opposite of deliberate tactics. In an emergency situation, you may need to take shortcuts and not clear every room or danger area completely. This increases the level of risk.
However, in an emergency situation where time is critical or there is imminent danger to innocent people, a tactical team might choose to assume a greater level of risk. Because of the increased danger typical of single-person operations, deliberate tactics are generally the best option.
While deliberate tactics are preferable for single-person operations. Police may end up facing an emergency situation alone and you will have no choice but to move at maximum speed and assume greater risk. This type of scenario is extremely dangerous and as an individual, there is little you can do to reduce the risk. Your best option is generally to move as quickly as possible and use speed as security, hoping that adversaries will not react fast enough to see you or shoot at you.
Obviously in ongoing deadly action situations our intent is to restore safety and order back to the location, our mission is to stop the threat and render aid. In One-person operations its crucial to understand how to approach the complex configurations houses, schools, hospitals and workplaces are made up of. Again Special Tactics offers some insight in how to maneuver effectively through complex building configurations and towards the threat:
When an officer searches for threats and clears a structure in a real-life scenario, he or she will encounter many different combinations of furniture, obstacles and complex room configurations. In many cases, the techniques for dealing with these situations is the same as for team operations. However, in other cases the procedures are different. Complex configurations are particularly dangerous for single officers since they have no backup and cannot cover more than one direction at a time.
Hallways are considered danger areas because the generally have many doors running along their length. An adversary could emerge from any one of these doors without warning. More importantly, an adversary could simply extend his or her weapon around the corner and spray indiscriminately. Because of the shape of the hallway, there is a greater chance that this type of indiscriminate fire will cause casualties. For all these reasons, hallways are danger areas and the officer should try to spend as little time in the hallway as possible. This might mean not conducting a full sweep when standing in a hallway but rather moving directly into the room and conducting a shallow or deep entry. In other cases, the officers best course of action might just be to run down the hallway quickly as possible to try to find a covered and concealed position before addressing the threat. There are no fixed solutions. The key point is to avoid being exposed in the hallway. Improvising as necessary to minimize risk.
Single-Room clearing without entry-when operating alone, officers might often choose to avoid entering a room unless its absolutely necessary to do so. This will help the officer minimize exposure and maximize personal safety. The officer will clear the room (as much as possible) from the outside and avoid getting drawn into a fight with adversaries who might possess superior numbers and weapons. By remaining outside of a room the officer also makes it easier to pull back away from danger and "call out" the adversary from a covered and concealed location if necessary. To execute the clear without entry technique, the single officer will conduct a sweep of the target room, just as in other delayed entry techniques. Once the sweep is complete, the officer may choose to conduct additional sweeps if necessary. Once the officer has cleared as much of the room as possible using the sweep technique, the officer will still need to clear the "deadspace" (or uncleared areas) in the corners of the room. To do this the officer will move forward and quickly clear both corners from the doorway. Once this process is complete, the officer should not remain standing in the doorway but instead should quickly move away from the door to the next room. In some other cases, the officer may decide to enter the room after all. If the officer decides to enter the room, he or she will use one of the other entry techniques described below.
Single Room Shallow Entry-the shallow entry techniques (sometimes called limited penetration techniques) are designed to prevent the officer from becoming over-committed or trapped deep in a target room. In single-person operations, officers will often prefer to remain closer to the doors, so they can quickly move through the door to avoid threats coming from either direction. However, officers should still observe the rule of keeping several feet away from the door to avoid getting hot by indiscriminant fire.
If there is a lot of furniture and uncleared dead space in the room, the shallow entry can make an officer vulnerable since he or she has not gone deep enough to see if anyone is hiding behind the furniture. In this situation, the officer might want to penetrate deeper into the room to clear behind furniture, using deep entry technique.
Single-Room Deep Entry-while shallow entry helps the officer avoid getting overly committed in the room and keep close to the path of escape, there are situations where the officer will want to clear the room completely. This is of particular importance in situations where officers plan to remain in the room for an extended period of time, use the room as a safe area for innocent civilians, or if there is a lot of furniture in the room. Deep entry involves penetrating fully into the room, clearing behind furniture and ensuring no adversaries are hiding behind the door.
When conducting deep entry techniques, an officer will penetrate only as far into the room as he or she needs to. The advantages of staying close to the door still apply. Therefore, unless there is furniture or dead space deep in the room, the officer should conduct the clearing movement relatively close to the door. An officer can also start by conducting a shallow entry and then move on to a deep entry after having had time to access the layout of the room and the situation.
When executing the deep entry, the officer should try to move quickly as possible, sacrificing some shooting accuracy in order to reduce vulnerability. If there are multiple threats in the room, the officer will be extremely vulnerable once passing through the door and the best option is to move quickly enough so adversaries find it difficult to shoot accurately.
The procedure for dealing with furniture as a single officer is relatively simple. Because there are no other officers present to perform coordinated movement, the single officer will simply move quickly to pass by obstacles in the room or check behind furniture for adversaries.
Confined areas with multiple openings (such as foyers, entryways or vestibules) are also very common in modern architecture and present a difficult tactical problem for the single officer. Rather than try to dominate these danger areas, the officer should quickly move past them into a room that offers better protection.
Another common configuration, found in commercial structures, are large rooms filled with cubicles. Cubicles are particularly dangerous since they must each be cleared individually and offer many hiding places for adversaries. When a single officer must clear a room full of cubicles, quick movement is critical since the officer will be exposed from many angles while moving. The officer can choose to move diagonally or laterally from cubicle to cubicle, looking for threats. Generally the officer should clear the closest cubicle first and move down the row, crossing over as needed.
Clearing and Moving Through Stairwells as an individual is very dangerous and you should avoid stairwells if at all possible. if you must enter a stairwell, the clearing process is actually quite simple because there is only so much you can do to cover all the potentially exposed angles in a stairwell. As in the hallway, your best option is to use speed to your advantage and get out of the stairwell as quickly as possible. Stairwells are danger areas so move through quickly and find a better fighting position. in commercial or industrial buildings, stairwells typically consist of sturdy metal and concrete construction with steel beams, making them particularly dangerous since bullets are more likely to ricochet off solid walls.
Whether you are moving up a stairwell or down a stairwell, the technique remains the same. Orient your weapon in the direction of travel (up or down) and keep as close as possible to the wall, away from the center banister. This will give you the best angle to see around the bend in the stairs. Turn you body towards the bend in the stairwell as you move, being careful to watch your step and not trip. This way you will be ready to engage any adversaries waiting around the bend in the stairs as soon as they emerge.
In single-officer operations it is necessary for officers to keep their "head on a swivel," constantly looking around to identify danger areas and potential threats. An officer must also consider all these options and techniques and be able to perform them on center fed, corner fed and with open and closed doors. When moving down hallways how to maneuver in L-shaped, T-Shaped and, X-Shaped hallway intersections an officer must know how to navigate as well. How to enter a room from the hallway and from the room into a hallway must also be mastered.
This is just a brief overview of single person operations (mindset, tactics, techniques and procedures) and there is much more to consider when wading into an ongoing deadly action situation alone. This begs us to ask the critical question, what is changing tactically? Ongoing deadly action situations come in different shapes and sizes, they are not all the same. There are different types of adversaries and different types of environments. Ongoing deadly action situations have evolved into much more than shooting people as method, explosives are now used, knives and vehicles are used to commit mass casualties. There have been active shooter situations turn into barricade hostage situations that revert back into active shooter situations with highly trained adversaries in some instances. Mass attacks and systems disruption are now part of the terrorist strategy, so we must prepare for multi-assaults. The threats are real and our adversaries adapt their techniques to keep us guessing.
“The dichotomy that uncertainty presents, then, is both a serendipitous and deliberate opportunity to create something from nothing, to find opportunity where others see conclusion. After all, only from chaos can calmness emerge. There is chaos we deal with as individuals, teams, and organizations; chaos that presents itself at the most inopportune times, and requires you to zig when you’d rather zag. No matter where you are, chaos finds you, and if you don’t know how to deal with change as an individual or as an organization, then you get eaten, swallowed whole, and left for dead.”
― Jeff Boss, Navigating Chaos: How to Find Certainty in Uncertain Situations
The uncertainty of the threats and the evolving chaos make going it alone extremely dangerous. So when we go it alone its critical we make sound decisions, use tactics and adapt as the situation dictates. Situational awareness and our sense-making abilities are especially critical in one person operations so when we go we must know why we are going. We must develop a course of action based on the current situation and not just because someone told us this is THE WAY to do it! We need to be better and train better than that!
"Tactics are not whether you go left or right. Tactics are about WHY you go left or right! The most formidable warriors are students of there profession!
~Gen. Al Gray
For this post I used two great resources from Special Tactics, Single-Person Close Quarter Battle and Law Enforcement Close Quarter Battle: Urban Tactics for Individuals, Teams and Tactical Units. Both resources are packed full of great information that will help shape and reshape your mindset and the tactics you use in handling active shooters and other dynamic encounters. I also am currently reading Jeff Boss, current book Navigating Chaos: How to Find Certainty in Uncertain Situations which will help in understanding the uncertainty and chaos involved in dynamic encounters and how to deal with it effectively.
Stay Oriented!
Fred
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