NCJ Number
194346
Journal
Police: The Law Enforcement Magazine Volume: 26 Issue: 3 Dated: March 2002 Pages: 26,28-30,31
Date Published
March 2002
Length
5 pages
Annotation
This article presents critical information to better prepare law enforcement officers for hazardous situations by learning how to think and react as a tactical officer.
Abstract
This article examined an officer’s reaction time; the ability of an officer to react immediately to a lethal threat or to prevent an assailant from disarming him/her. There’s a need for police officers to be trained for hazardous situations and have proper awareness and sound tactical thinking for split-second deadly force decision making. Survival instruction in the past has used the if/then thinking approach, placing the potential threat at a distance. This preparedness method was replaced with the when/then thinking approach. This approach makes the threat more immediate and certain, thereby aiding the officer in being better able to take immediate action without hesitation. The next step in learning to think tactically is for the officer to plan his/her reaction to specific threats and actions. An officer’s reaction will be based on the way in which the person being arrested responds to the arrest such as compliance; flight; nonresponse or slow response; resistance or assault; and potentially lethal assault or threat. The third step of a tactical officer is to prepare for high stress, life-threatening situations by practicing combat breathing or autogenic breathing, by participating in high stress training sessions that reproduce the types of pressure experiences in real-life situations, and by developing conditioned responses to behaviors that will be experienced in the officer’s duty environment. With this training in place there is a greater likelihood of success in dealing with threats posed during tactical or first-responder operation.