As a firearms instructor, competitive shooter, police officer (ret.), and student of armed conflict, I am always searching for ways the good guys can gain an advantage over the bad guys. This includes reading danger cues, the application of technology and improved tactics.
When in-car video became common, it provided another avenue for studying armed conflicts. Body cameras, improved security camera footage and cell phone cameras have added even more data we can use to study these fights. As a law enforcement firearm instructor, I review officer-involved shooting (OIS) videos with an eye toward training officers in tactical response skills for the realities of those fights. Over the years, one of the things I’ve noticed is how inefficient our police firearms training has made officers in gunfights.
Training to win
Many OIS videos show officers shooting very quickly under time duress. Our well-trained officers are getting pretty good at recognizing suspect threat cues, but it takes time to process those cues, determine a response and act accordingly. If this sounds like the OODA loop, then you are correct.
Without constantly training officers to make decisions under increased stress and time duress, this process can take up precious time forcing officers to catch up to the threat. Even faced with video evidence, some firearm instructors continue to insist there’s no shot timer or stopwatch in a gunfight. This is wrong thinking. There is a shot timer in an OIS, and it’s being controlled by the threat. As a result, we need to include the critical elements of decision-making and problem-solving in our range drills.
Once again, let’s go back to the OODA loop. Armed conflict is mostly a cognitive event. Officers must observe what is happening, orient themselves to the threat and decide upon a course of action. All of this occurs cognitively. It isn’t until the officer acts that they apply a physical skill to prevail in conflict. To better prepare officers, the addition of a cognitive, decision-making, or problem-solving element must be included in our scenarios or advanced range drills.
Speed and accuracy
We have all heard the phrases, “Slow is smooth, smooth is fast.” This phrase makes me cringe. We absolutely need to train officers to make hits on their intended target. Accuracy and marksmanship accountability are a must. But who determined speed and accuracy needed to be separated as two independent things?
A common theme I see in far too many OIS videos are officers shooting really fast but failing to hit their intended target. Stress and cognitive overload are just two contributing factors. The biggest contributing factor to these misses, and the one we can directly influence, is that many officers were never trained to shoot well quickly. Most of the instructors we have on the range have never been shown techniques and methods to shoot accurately very quickly. If instructors haven’t been trained to shoot well quickly, there’s no reason to believe officers have been trained either.
Many instructors associate being slow as the same as being deliberate in their actions. It’s not the same. We can be deliberate in our actions quickly if we train to do so. Training should help students develop an understanding of when they can be quick and certain while minimizing recoil and movement of the gun. Practice and training at speed can develop an efficient draw and presentation, the ability to see the sights or pick up the dot quickly, press the trigger and reacquire an acceptable sight picture much faster than most officers think possible.
Moving efficiently
The way officers move on the range during training is another element of efficient gunfighting I see ignored. I see this in defensive tactics training too, but it is more frequently addressed on the mats while being ignored on the range. The way in which officers move in training can either give them more time to shoot well, or it can force them to continue playing catch up.
Specifically in the realm of firearms training, I see officers move from one place to another wasting time that could be spent stopping the threat. In the video below on shooting with efficiency, we see a student running a drill called Chrystal’s Cross. When the student moves from one shooting position to another, he moves quickly and deliberately. However, each time he moves out of a position, he stands upright and brings the handgun down in front of his body. Then, he bends his legs to give him leverage to move to the next position. Once the student arrives at the next position, he stands upright, brings the pistol up to his eye-target line, then proceeds to shoot.
Another thing the student does is fail to manage his ammunition effectively. Instead of reloading before he gets to the gunfight, he arrives at the gunfight with a pistol that isn’t working. Making sure you arrive ready to fight is critical to giving you time to fight effectively. I know what some of you are thinking. “You’re just gaming the drill to be faster.” Reread what I wrote about adding a cognitive element to our drills. If we have officers make decisions and solve problems before, during and after drills, they will be better prepared to prevail. Accusing someone of “gaming” a drill really means they shot the drill smarter than you. Tactics are “gaming” an incident. Smarter tactics frequently lead to being better, safer and more efficient.
To the student, it feels like he’s moving quickly from one position to another and blazing through the drill. However, the shot timer tells a different story. The shot timer shows how slow he is between shooting positions. If we think of each shooting position as a gunfight, then he is wasting critical time getting into and out of a position where he could fight. The clock and gunfight continues but he is only a witness or victim of the fight. He’s not an active participant in his own gunfight.
Instead, if the shooter lowers his center of gravity and keeps it lowered throughout the gunfight, he can move quicker, stay balanced and maintain a more stable shooting platform leading to improved accuracy and quicker follow up shots. Similarly, when he moves from one position to another, if he keeps the handgun up near the eye-target line, there is very little movement needed to obtain an adequate sight picture. As a matter of fact, a sight picture can be obtained while moving into position instead of waiting to come to a complete stop.
In the video, I demonstrate that even when I walk between shooting positions, I cut 12 seconds off the student’s time. I move from each position with a lower center of gravity keeping the pistol up near my eye-target line. I arrive at each position in a lower and more stable shooting platform having already acquired a sight picture on the target. Once I have an adequate sight picture, I press the trigger and make my hits before repeating this at the next shooting position. I also manage my ammunition enabling me to solve the problem when I arrive at the next position. Efficient movement and tactics give you more time to fight effectively.
We need to continue studying OIS videos to learn more about how these fights occur in the real-world environment of police work. Once we understand how these fights unfold, we can train our officers to prevail in those fights. Focusing on qualifications and basic drills isn’t working. Instead, training officers to problem-solve, make decisions and fight efficiently under time duress is key to improving performance.
