How To Run an Officer Survival Course

• NCJ Number: 80312
• Journal: Police Product News Volume: 6 Issue: 1 Dated: (January 1982) Pages: 48-51,57-58
• Author(s): M Ayoob
• Date Published: 1982
• Length: 7 pages
• Sale Source: National Institute of Justice/
• Publication Type: Instructional Material
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Suggestions for an instructor of a police officer survival course cover outside specialists, the use of audiovisual materials, effective teaching approaches, and the importance of other behavioral science disciplines to survival skills.

Abstract

The officer in charge of teaching police survival should have taken some survival sources before undertaking the assignment, although outside specialists can be hired. This article first suggests than an instructor use tapes, slides, and training films as much as possible because they document the training and are both time and cost effective. Videotapes of students' behavior in a simulated crime scene are valuable aids, as are short tapes depicting a stairwell ascent or car stops. To give students a deeper understanding of the dangers they are facing, the testimony of cop killers in State prisons can be taped. Training should relate to a police department's particular geographic and social environment and try to use examples from the student's own experiences. An instructor cannot be dogmatic but should teach a repertoire of skills to fall back on as a situation develops and escalates. Although officer survival tends toward individualized training, the New York Police Department operates an effective program in which about 100 officers observe and comment on simulated survival exercises performed by other police officers. A course cannot be based on a single person's experiences, and people who have been involved in many shootouts are not necessarily the best instructors. Survival teachers should not limit themselves to gunfighting techniques but explore unarmed defensive tactics, crisis intervention skills, community relations, and the significance of body language. Survival must be taught from the broad world of street reality and draw on every discipline that is relevant to police work. Specialists who offer training courses are listed.