South Florida Police training at paintball field.

[sigma1]

I was in Miami earlier this week returning from a course.
I went to a paintball store to buy some parts for my kids and there was a field in the back.
There were about 25-30 police officers there getting some training with some SWAT instructors.
At first they all got a basic run down on the weapon they were using, a regular semi auto marker, and were put 4 against 2 instructors.

I was shocked to see how bad these guys were doing. They could not use cover properly, had no idea of team movements, when ever one of the guns would malfunction they would freeze and just look at the gun while they tried to fire it, they could not hear their partner. At first I thought they were rookies or trainees, but they were actual officers from different units in the Miami area: North Miami, Sweetwater, Mikosukee,etc..
These guys were so bad, my kids could probably take them on a paintball field.
I am not in any way comparing paintball to a real situation but some of the same tactics apply.
Some examples: these guys would get too close to a barricade and couldn't see over or to the side without exposing a big part of their body. When looking on the left side they could not transit to the support side so they were getting shot on the over exposed left side, knees sticking out on side of barricades, they would start to move from cover to cover then suddenly stop to look for the bad guys as if they were lost.

I don't know how much tactical training they got in the police academy but they looked like they never got any.

Before I left one of the SWAT instructors told the them they sucked and they should come on the field on weekends and play against these young kids, get the shit kicked out of them and go home and think what would have happened if it had been a real situation.

Is it a lack of training or are they supposed to get this type of training on their own?

Sigma 1

[TPD1280]

Before I left one of the SWAT instructors told the them they sucked and they should come on the field on weekends and play against these young kids, get the shit kicked out of them and go home and think what would have happened if it had been a real situation.


THAT IS THE TRAINING.

Most police academies do not have the time to do in depth tactical training. That is left to the departments.

The departments give the SWAT guys the training as movement to contact with an armed and entrenched bad guy is part and parcel of what they do.

The patrol guys get a glossed over version of it at the school house, and it is spoken about in annual training at most departments, but that is it.

Training time is precious, and the Department thinks (rightfully so) that the proper enforcement of the law, changes to legal decisions and criminal proceedures are very important. So that's what gets the bulk of the training time.

Departments that have the time and budget, have integrated scenario based tactical training and the use of simunitions. But the vast majority of departments across the U.S. are small and just don't have the budget, so officers are left to their own devices. Even in the greater Miami area, there are little towns with their own departments, that are not part of Metro-Dade. Little town, little department, little budget.

FBI shooting statistics show that the vast majority of police (patrol) involved shootings happen at a distance of less than 11 feet, and are over in about 3 seconds.

The rare case like Columbine, where patrol is the only response and must take action now has prompted Active Shooter And Patrol (ASAP) Training by many major departments. Patrol guys are getting much more in depth tactical training, but once again, it is budget based.

Every section in the department is fighting for money. The training staff will always scream (correctly) that proper training will ultimately save the department money by avoiding lawsuits and on the job injuries. But those returns are not tangible, nor are they immediate. So training gets a back burner until it is a reaction to something that has already happened.

That's the reality.

[sigma1]

THAT IS THE TRAINING.

Most police academies do not have the time to do in depth tactical training. That is left to the departments.

...So training gets a back burner until it is a reaction to something that has already happened.

That's the reality.

I understand.
And I guess with the salary they have, paying out of their pockets for courses are not a option.
It looks to me like they are not provided the right tools to do the job.
So if they do not have the training then they will not have the confidence to enter in a situation and probably wait and call backup or SWAT.

[TPD1280]

Yep.

And for most departments, containment of the situation until the arrival of specialized unit (negotiators and SWAT), is SOP.

[BadMuther]

Hey brother,

I can't speak for FL, but having just got out of the academy here, I can say that our tactical training was NON-Existent. 20 minutes on room clearing and 1 hour on handcuffing...:rolleyes:

[sigma1]

Hey BM

I guess all they want an officer to do is to stand by, contain and call for reinforcement like TPD said.
Maybe a cheap way for them to get some training ,if I could call it that, is to go play woods ball or scenario ball. But then if they have no experience they might develop bad habits that could be worst than no training or experience at all.

Stay Safe

Sigma

[CA SGT]

FWIW..27 years worth of experience says...Its on you to stay alive. The department is going to send you to the bare minimum of courses, to keep you current on state certification (POST). I have seen agencies send their people to consective yearly under the influence courses, to just check the box for hours of education. SWAT guys get more, but official time allowed is usually no more than 24 hrs a month for training.
Agencies are so short handed today, that sending people to week long training that is not required, is all but a thing of the past. This especially in California, where we were required to attend sensitivity training, workplace violence training, save the whales training, etc.etc..
Again, if your a young guy starting out, it's on you...join a shooting club, get with some of your shift mates and work some tactics during slow hours, be proactive. Dont depend on the dept to save your life.

[mb5417]

I think proper use of cover is a difficult concept to teach to students who are doing little more than punching holes in paper. When I went through firearms instructor training at FLETC, our instructors repeatedly corrected our class on use of cover during the different shooting drills we ran.

It wasn't until we ran through an outdoor paintball course that most of us finally got it. The course was a simunition exercise where one student had to advance from one type of cover to another (car, door frame, wall, low wall, mail box, telephone pole) towards an instructor in a plexiglass booth with a paintball marker. In order to advance, you had to put two hits on the plexiglass window.

Many students could not complete the course (we had three full 13 rd mags). Some never left the first point of cover (the car). To be fair, the instructors would walk their shots at the student, letting them know an elbow, knee, foot, or head was visible, and giving them an opportunity to correct their position before peppering them.

The first time I peeked from behind the car, I took a shot right in the center of my face shield. I did redeem myself though, I finished the course with one reload, and most of the rounds left in the magazine.:D

[TPD1280]

Again, if your a young guy starting out, it's on you...join a shooting club, get with some of your shift mates and work some tactics during slow hours, be proactive. Dont depend on the dept to save your life.

IDPA is a good place the get some basics. No, it's not the same, but it gets you into a decent frame of mind.

The RO's will correct you on use of cover, slicing the pie, movement, etc.

Though there are some "Billy Bubba" weekend pistoleros and wannabes there, you will also find many cops and vets there as well.

The concept behind IDPA was to get away from the race gun shooting and get more realism in the scenarios.

[sigma1]

I have seen both IPSC and IDPA on TV and in mags. never had a chance to attend a competition but it does look like IDPA is geared more towards the tactical aspect instead of the all out modified race guns. Maybe some of these IDPA clubs should maybe use that explanation in their marketing to have young officers and old, come out and shoot and see what works and what doesn't.

I have been to a Tactical Instructor course last year and meet some officers sent to this course to become their departments instructors.
Well to put it nicely it looked like it was their first shooting course. I can picture them running a course for their dept.

Another thing that I noticed while watching these officers in Miami, they had a hard time handling the stress of the situation. They were excited, adrenaline pumping and they were fumbling the markers, could not communicate. The fact that they had someone else shooting at them, even if it was paint changed the parameters. These guys were coming out of the field out of breath and sometimes a little confused. Most of the markers malfunction were just that the markers were on safe!

[Axe]

Another thing that I noticed while watching these officers in Miami, they had a hard time handling the stress of the situation. They were excited, adrenaline pumping and they were fumbling the markers, could not communicate. The fact that they had someone else shooting at them, even if it was paint changed the parameters. These guys were coming out of the field out of breath and sometimes a little confused. Most of the markers malfunction were just that the markers were on safe!

The reactions you are describing sound fairly normal for inexperienced cops placed into stressful situations for the first times to me. They also knew that someone was going to be shooting at them, and shooting "safe" projectiles at that. Imagine how poorly an inexperienced officer could react to an unexpected attack!!

My opinion has always been that you can't "teach" someone how to function well under a heavy adrenaline surge in a lecture. People can really only learn it themselves. They learn how to work through adrenaline by exposure, hopefully in controlled, safe experiences like the one you are describing, where they can get a taste of the go-juice without ending up getting hurt by bad decisionmaking made under its influence.

Smart cops learn pretty quickly once they are out on the street the vast gap between what they were taught in their training vice what they actually need to know and proceed to fill that gap, usually on their own time and their own dime.