Training Our Cops For Combat

Great article.

I guess America will always be the number one terrorist target because I don't see a time that our civilian peace officers will ever become the so-called warriors the authors wants them to be. The 9/11 attacks were horrific but terrorism is less frequent an act than people think.I would guess that probably 98 to 99% of cops will never respond to a terrorist incident in their careers. if we train them to react like soldiers we risk them overreacting to regular crimes which they will face on a continuous basis. Wasn't this why S.W.A.T. and ESU was created in the first place? Everybody seems stuck on the terror attacks in Beslan. There is always the possibility of a Beslan style attack on a school in America, but training our officers to rush right in and engage the bad guys while accepting that they may have to kill some kids for the greater good won't go over well with officers or the public.

As Albert Einstein prophetically said, "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result." The author correctly points out that staying ahead of your opponents OODA Loop is the way to defeat your enemy. Many of the fears I am hearing in these posts about over reacting or being overly aggressive will be correct if law enforcement training does not focus training on developing critical thinking skills, namely observation and orientation. These are the key to making good and accurate decisions and taking action. It is an area that has been overlooked in law enforcement and I believe the key to success in dealing with the challenges of terrorism and violence in our society. In other words, if you can't perceive it correctly and be situationally aware through recognizing pre assault indicators, understanding behavioral assessment (yes profiling - not stereotyping) and pattern recognition law enforcement cannot be effective. This is the difficult part and requires training, the easy part is getting more powerful weapons. We need to quit dumping millions of dollars into technology such as useless scanning equipment and put it toward training our law enforcement officers and increasing their skill sets.

Looks like these guys must have missed their class on the use of force/deadly force. Maybe their dealing with some anger management issues and could use an eval and treatment. The public is supposed to respect these guys as warriors? They have a little problem with recognizing a terrorist from a common crook. Warrior talk is irresponsible and fosters this type of behavior.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJkMuEMqjL4

I agree with you Chief!

Police Officer training needs to be stepped up to meet the time. All Officers should be trained in SWAT/TAC .

We are the Local city township village county state bourough or troopers state police and constables and are not the military however many are veterans! We are the local problem solvers and cat and animal and people rescuers! we deal with the domestics thefts dope Growers meth labs civi l matters drunks and hundreds of other issues and problems ! We develop the communications in our citys towns and villages that allow major and minor crimes to be solved because of trust in the Local officer! The Local officers that stopped Tim Mcvey or Shane and ChevY Kehoe on Traffic stopS or whackos in Phoenix WE ARE THE FIRST AND LAST LINE OF DEFENSE who follow some of the most strict standards usualley using the oldest equipment!!

I cant believe i just read in this article they think that there are probably no terrorist in the US but just a few years ago only a few hours from me the FBI discovered a terrorist training camp right here in Oregon! I haven't looked at who wrote this article cause its not adding up but brings up the valid point that not all cops have the training they may need to face this initially.