Via Blue Sheepdog, a great video showing what law enforcement training and police work was like in 1951. Watch, “This Is Your Police Department.”
Some things have not changed. They still call their patrol vehicles, “scout cars” today, but many other things have changed. What do you think?
By PoliceOne Staff Some truly bizarre incidents can take place in vehicles, as the case of the Ohio woman who sprayed deputies with breast milk in June demonstrates — glaringly. Other clips show an officer struck by a stolen car get up and chase the driver, a suspect escape out the window of a patrol car, and a nice PIT maneuver.____
Officer sent flying by stolen car, chases driver
A UK police officer goes flying after a stolen BMW plows into him, then gets up and chases the driver.
Ohio deputies sprayed with breast milk
Stephanie Robinette, 30, locked herself in a car and sprayed breast milk on the car and the deputies trying to coax her out of the vehicle.
Handcuffed prisoner jumps from cruiser
A prisoner in Utah was being driven in a cruiser when he asked to have the window rolled down, saying he was ill.
SC trooper's car engulfed in flames during chase
Miraculously, the trooper escaped without any major injuries.
PIT Success
A Trenton, Ga. patrol car stops a suspect's truck to end a pursuit. Nicely executed.
I just read my second (I think) issue of the BlueSheepDog.com newsletter, and saw something very cool. Wonder how you can improve the chances of catching the bad guys and reduce the chances of losing contact? All while reducing the chance of injury or death? Well, the newsletter highlights a great one:
StarChase Pursuit Management System
Who doesn’t like playing tag or cops and robbers? When you combine the two games, you have a serious solution proposed by StarChase to a serious problem.
The StarChase Pursuit Management System “tags” a suspect vehicle fleeing from law enforcement and leads authorities to the vehicle by the use of real-time GPS tracking, thereby minimizing the risks of a high-speed pursuit.
A great idea, and if it reduces the chance of injuries to officer and innocent third parties, it may be a great solution!
If you’re in law enforcement, or a related industry or occupation, check out BlueSheepdog.com
Dojo Rat’s post, October Hippie Chick of the Month: Female Cops is right on the money with the the first several entries, but as someone with a weakness for a woman in uniform, I must protest!
I’ve been privileged to work with a decent number of female officers that rise way above the standard for the United States entry in this post. Maybe he needs to come visit?
On a serious not, thanks to all in law enforcement, men and women alike, who exemplify their profession – you are the rule, and not the exception.
Have a great weekend!
The use-of-force video from inside the U Me Drink club at the MGM Grand Detroit Casino in Detroit is a good launching point for a discussion about what’s happening to police officers nationwide. As anyone watches an incident play out on nearly every use-of-force video, the viewer is invited — even dared — to draw a conclusion after seeing a snippet of an incident taped from an obscure angle in limited lighting. Conclusions drawn are often jaundiced because videos of a police officer using justified force are often listed on YouTube as “Police Brutality.”
Read more at PoliceOne.com
Video Happens!
Both officers and civilians involved in violent (use of force) encounters need to realize that video is here, and not going away. For every violent encounter in a public place, there may be 3 cameras recording the incident, all devoid of the context of what led to the encounter.
In the last few years, I've found out that a great many law enforcement officers read TDA Training, and think BlueSheepdog.com is one of the best sites for good info to share with them. The creator of the site has dedicated his time and effort to making his site a great resource for useful information for all law enforcement, including:
Sgt. Peoples was not deterred."I've been through five deployments. I've fought the Muqtada militia, everybody you can think of, so weapons getting pointed at me, it doesn't really bother me anymore," he said. "I took the weapon away from him and put him on the ground and the rest was history."Deputies arrested 34-year-old Matthew Rogers. He is charged with armed robbery."Every time I get deployed, I always tell my children I'm going to fight the bad men. When I walked back in the bank, my oldest boy said 'did you get the bad men?' and I said 'yep, I got the bad men' and everyone applauded," Peoples said.Rogers has a long criminal history, including arrests for burglary, auto theft and reckless driving.
Who was the greatest Deputy U.S. Marshal of the Old West?
Wyatt Earp?
Wild Bill Hickok?
How about Bass Reeves? Bass who?
A San Francisco cop enduring a pummeling from a “crazed” Muni fare evader Wednesday was fortunate that the attack happened outside a martial arts academy.Hero jiu-jitsu instructor Pedro Arrigoni came to the cop’s rescue, putting the suspect into a choke hold and forcing him into submission at around 1 p.m., police said.The 24-year-old Portola resident said he had just finished teaching a class at the AB Mixed Martial Arts Academy at 2975 San Bruno Ave. when he saw the suspect had mounted the cop after unleashing a flurry of punches.
This, the second in the series on the “21-foot rule” is written by Patrick Parker, of the venerable Mokuren Dojo blog. Patrick and I have enjoyed several years of banter, debate, and sincere mutual admiration since he started writing online, and I’ve grown to look forward to anytime he expresses an opinion, even if I don’t understand it. Sensei Pat runs a Judo and Aikido school in Mississippi, while, in Clark Kent fashion, appearing to the lay person as a physical therapist and PhD with some kids, living a normal life in the suburbs with a long honey-do list. Several times a week, ,however, in the evenings, the suit comes off, the gi and black belt goes on, and he transforms into a 6th-dan in aikido and 5th-dan in judo, both of which outrank and scare me. To preempt any threats or just looks of intimidation for not allowing him to play, I invited him to share his insights from his own context.
Cross-posted here at his site.
I'm not a law enforcement officer. I don't even play one on TV. In fact, I didn't even stay at the Holiday Inn Express last night. But Nathan at TDA Training did ask me to contribute some ideas to a week-long discussion of the famous Tueller Drill. Check out the video at Nathan's blog, and while you're at it, check out this gruesome example of the 21-foot rule played out in this police reel.
I enjoyed TGace's post about the flaws within the Tueller experiment and I appreciate his assertion that Tueller's results did not validate any sort of claim about the superiority of any particular weapon (a knife) over any other particular weapon (a gun). I intended to write this post on the idea that what Tueller does demonstrate most effectively is that a gun is not a magical talisman that automatically assures victory - but Paul at Tactical Arnis beat me to that point. Kudos to both of y'all for excellent, informative articles.
In my opinion, one of the take-away lessons from Tueller (perhaps unintended by the original author) is that a knife in the hand of a person with the right mindset is the most versatile, effective, gruesome, demoralizing weapon invented in the last several thousand years. Sure, the handgun is (I suppose) the centerpiece of police force projection, but again, the handgun is not a magic talisman. This point is effectively demonstrated by Tueller.
Also, Tueller's results were intended for police consumption. Using it to justify anything in the civilian self-defense context is a stretch - particularly because of the simple fact that most civilians will not have access to a handgun most of the time. But Tueller does illustrate an important point that is one of the centerpieces of our aikido system. That is...
You can never afford to underestimate the potential of your opponent.
Or, put another way, you have to treat every single training encounter as if your opponent is the most dangerous bad guy imaginable, armed with the most awful tactical advantage imaginable. Or, in shorter form, "You can never tell who you're standing beside." To us, that means we try to assume that all opponents are armed with a knife. You have to design your practices around the assumption that your opponent has the potential to kill you if they have the ability to touch you. That's pretty stringent, and it leads to practices like stab-twice randori, starting already stabbed, and progressive chaos.
As we have done knife randori like this over the years, we have come up with a few pretty reliable pieces of information. First, all of aikido (and probably most all of self-defense) is based on a couple of techniques that we call shomenate (A.K.A. the palm jab to the chin) and aigamaeate (A.K.A. iriminage, a palm jab to the chin done from outside the opponent's arm). The tactical idea behind both of these techniques is the same:
All of our randori over the years has verified this basic idea - if you go into a knife encounter with any plan but the above, You're likely to get killed. But the above plan saves you a remarkable percentage of the time.
It turns out that all the other stuff in aikido - all the stuff you think of as aikido - the cool wristlocks and the airy breath throws - those are just backup plans. This basic plan enumerated above makes up easily 80% of aikido, and all the cool stuff fills in around the edges.
And you know what's cool? Tactical guru, Dave Spaulding agrees with me!
So, in summary of this somewhat rambling, stream of consciousness...
[photo courtesy of Jesse Millan]
____________________
Patrick Parker
Today’s guest post in our series on the “21-foot rule” is by someone in a fitting position to critique the Tueller training 
technique, TGace of The Things Worth Believing In. I have met (though not trained with) this gentleman twice, so far, and have plans to do more in the future. He is currently serving with a mid-sized municipal police department in Vice and Narcotics, and has training and experience in the tactical (SWAT) realm, and law enforcement training. TGace is also a graduate of the prestigious FBI National Academy, the top law enforcement executive training academy in the nation, if not the world. His martial arts experience is quite varied and extensive, but my reason for asking him to participate is due to his current, real-world experience as an officer, and his obsession (my words) with guns and gun training. Enjoy. Cross-posted here at his site.
Martial artist, blogger and personal acquaintance, Nathan Teodoro has posted a video on his blog; TDA Training. The video shows a few minutes of footage from “Surviving Edged Weapons”, which was a film from the late 1980′s that was designed to prepare police officers for dealing with what was thought to have been “the growing threat of ‘knife culture’ in the United States”.
For those of us familiar with this film, Nathan’s video shows the Dan Inosanto training scenarios; the ones where officers get “knifed” by Dan while trying to draw their weapons. The rest is the illustration of the “21 foot rule”, also known as the “Tueller Drill”. Over the years, people (mostly in martial arts circles) have been pointing to this video as the “proof” of the “supremacy of the knife”. I believe that looking at this video, or the “Tueller Drill”, as proof of one weapons superiority over another is shortsighted and a misunderstanding of Tueller’s original point.
The Tueller Drill
The “Tueller drill” was named after Sgt. Dennis Tueller, Salt Lake City Police. In 1983, he published an article titled “How Close Is Too Close” in SWAT magazine. In this article Tueller discussed the results of a series of tests he had run which showed that most people could, on average, close a distance of 21 feet in about 1.5 seconds. Tueller concluded that a person armed with a knife or club (and I would add ANY object that could be used as a weapon) at this so called “intermediate range” of 21 feet, was a potentially lethal threat. Note Tueller did not say anything about any particular weapon being superior to any other. From a Police perspective he was demonstrating why officers would be justified in displaying and possibly using deadly force against non-firearm threats from distances as great as 21 feet or more. Tueller said in his article:
Having analyzed the problem, the following suggestions come to mind: First, develop and maintain a healthy level of tactical alertness. If you spot the danger signs early enough, you can probably avoid the confrontation altogether. A tactical withdrawal (I hesitate to use the word “retreat”) may be your best bet, unless you’re anxious to get involved in a shooting and the consequent legal hassles which are sure to follow.
Next, if you’re “Early Warning System” tells you that a possible lethal confrontation is imminent, you want to place yourself in the best tactical position available. You should move to cover (if there is any close at hand), draw your weapon, and start to plan your next move.
Why use cover, you may wonder, if your attacker is using only a knife? Because you want to make it hard for him to get to you. Anything between you and your attacker (trash cans, vehicles, furniture, etc.) that slows him down buys you more time to make the appropriate decisions, and, if it becomes necessary, more time to place your shots.
I suggest you draw your weapon as soon as the danger clearly exists. There is no point in waiting until the last possible second to play “Quick-Draw McGraw” if you recognize the threat early on. Also, the sight of your “Equalizer” may be sufficient to terminate the action then and there.
The purpose of the pistol is to stop fights, and whether it does so by dropping a thug in his tracks, or by causing him to turn tail and run, your goal is accomplished, is it not?
At this point it might be advisable to issue a verbal challenge such as, “Stop”‘, “Don’t move”, or “Drop your weapon!” It may work, and even if it doesn’t you’ll be developing your legal case for self-defense by showing that you did everything you could to prevent a shooting. If all goes according to plan, the odds are that by now you will no longer have a problem, your attacker having remembered he had a more pressing engagement elsewhere.
Tueller says nothing about any weapon being inferior/superior, the necessity of being trained in knife disarms, or argues the “inherent deadliness of the blade”; it was all about range awareness, tactical awareness and the use of force. What this discovery tell me is that officers should be tactically analyzing the situation they are approaching at all times, they should be looking for non-verbal threat cues, they should be watching an opponents hands, they should use objects as cover when possible and they should never just walk up to a subject as a matter of habit. Police Officers should always maintain a healthy “reactionary gap” between themselves and others but Police Officers cannot be conducting business from 21′, behind cover with a weapon drawn either. “Yes I will get your cat out of the tree ma’am, but first interlock your fingers on top of your head and spread your feet apart!” Unlike non-sworn personnel, sometimes we can’t walk away from any potential threat, it’s our duty to deal with it. What is ultimately most important is adhering to tactically sound officer safety techniques at all times.
The Worst Case Scenario
Tueller said this in his article too :
Sometime, of course, despite your best efforts, you could find you are suddenly, at close quarters, the intended victim of some lunatic slasher. If you are an expert in one of the many martial arts, you may opt to go at it hand-to-hand, and if you are in this category you do not need advice from me on how to do it. So, we’ll get back to the use of the handgun for solving the problem. What it all comes down to now is your ability to smoothly and quickly draw your pistol and hit your adversary, and do it all reflexively. And the only way to develop these reflexes is through consistent, repetitive practice, practice, practice.
In the clip from Surviving Edged Weapons where Dan Inosanto attacks the cops, the lesson is stated as “you have to use empty hand techniques”. Well if you walk right up to a person acting suspiciously in an empty warehouse instead of issuing commands from range and the guy attacks you with a knife, than yes, I guess you are in deep caca and depending on your gun alone may not be the best idea. However, I think that the ultimate lesson for officers here shouldn’t be “learn martial arts“, as beneficial as that would indeed be, it should be “use better tactics“. But to be fair to the officers in the video, I don’t know exactly how the scenario was presented to them. The narrator says it was framed as “respond to suspicious circumstances in a warehouse at night”. If it was “It’s 1AM, the business is closed, and you find a broken lock…” these Coppers screwed up. If it was “It looks like it may be the business owner”, that’s a different story and they were set-up for the confrontation by the creators. I also wonder if there were any subjects who “won” the scenario that didn’t make the film?
When it comes to the mechanics of close range fighting, I agree that backpedaling and focusing on trying to draw your pistol in the face of a knife attack is not a great idea, but I think that telling officers that they should be focusing on disarming an attacker or staying entirely H2H is a mistake as well. Knife defenses and disarms are a “break glass in the event of emergency” situation even for highly trained martial artists, let alone an Officer who will probably be practicing such techniques far less often. What would be best to learn from this video is to not be “in the hole” in the first place. If the officer has no choice, than this video is a good lesson in the need to combine empty hand techniques with basic tactics like lateral movement and CQB oriented shooting styles, which are essential for “in the hole” confrontations versus “quick draw” style techniques.
1. You MUST solve the positional problem BEFORE you try to acquire your firearm and engage the threat. This means you may have to move off the line of threat, or go hands on with the threat until you can improve your position sufficiently to ensure that you have the time and space to draw and deliver deadly force.
2. You must RETAIN your weapon. SouthNarc teaches shooting from a high “two” position, with the pistol tucked in close to the body and the firing thumb indexed along the pectoral muscle. Support side arm in a horizontal or vertical “elbow shield”, utilizing the bone structure to provide sufficient space between you and your threat so you can work the trigger and not get foul the slide or get it forced out of battery.
3. It’s going to be hard, fast, and ugly.
4. If you stand still and try to draw your gun and pull the trigger while a big ape is stacking your sh**, you will not prevail.
5. Movement, strikes, and working to the flank, getting dominant position, and THEN lighting up the bad guy is the goal.
Good stuff.
What It All Means
The Tueller Drill, while a useful tool, seems to have become a set piece exercise with a tendency to be overblown by people who missed Tueller’s point. I believe that the main revelation of the Tueller Drill is the power of initiative and INTENT. In the classic “Knife vs. Gun Tueller Drill” the knifer knows he is going to attack and when. The other person stands there…holstered…and waits. There is no “scenario”, no back-story of why you are in contact with this person in the first place. It never takes into consideration obstacles between opponents, it never considers the officer taking the initiative and drawing, giving commands and or preempting your opponent. The drill is pure physics. A person can cover this distance and strike a person in this given time”.
On the street this boils down to basic OODA . In the classic Tueller Drill the knife wielder is already inside the defenders “OODA loop”, the knifer gets to both DECIDE and ACT before the defender can process the situation. If you allow a little “real world” into this exercise, and the defender in the Tueller drill knows that the knifer is coming for him (which he does = Observe) he should “cheat”. He should run..place an obstacle between him and the BG (Orient) and start issuing commands and/or start shooting before the knifer even thinks to move (Decide/Act). I have always wanted to be asked to participate in a “Tueller Drill” and wait to be told “You stand here. He has a knife and when he moves you react”. I’d ask “he has a knife?” and when told yes draw down, place an obstacle between us and give commands. I know that I would be ignoring the intent of the drill by doing that. The intent being to simply make you aware of the “reaction gap” and the realities of edged weapons, but the Tueller Drill is ultimately an example of math more than it is an example of “combative truth”.
IMO, who decides to attack, who is first aware of the threat and who has a weapon in hand is more important than which weapon is “superior” in this sort of scenario. If you have an enemy who is within 21′ with ANY WEAPON and he gets to make the first move, while you wait to respond…you are in big trouble, be that a knife, a gun, a bottle or a roadside rock.
Stay Alert, Stay Aware, Stay Alive.
If you enjoyed this post, please check out The Things Worth Believing In site, and connect with the author at his Facebook page and on Twitter. And if you’re a criminal in his area, steer clear (sorry TGace, couldn’t help it!).
Stay tuned for the rest of the series, including posts by Pat from Mokuren Dojo, and Adam from Low Tech Combat, later this week!
Sensei Strange at Dragons Orb has a great video and some excellent comments in response to my post, “Distance and Awareness-Blade and Gun (Video).”. Click the photo to check it out.
Wim responded with this post almost as soon as our original post hit the ‘Net.
Look for a great post tomorrow from TGace of The Things Worth Believing In on the same subject!
Thanks to Patrick from Mokuren Dojo for the heads up about Strange’s post.
Watch the video in full – does it change your awareness of anything?
This begins a guest post series with three of the best writers on martial subject matter in the business: TGace of The Things Worth Believing In, Patrick Parker of Mokuren Dojo, and Adam of Low Tech Combat. Over the next few days they will share their views on the drill and what it means to them in training, or what it can teach the rest of us.
All original material is copyright of their respective authors.
All rights reserved. Permission must be obtained before use. Copyright 2011
If you liked our previous posts on police cars, past and present, you might like Police Magazine’s gallery of Sporty Police Vehicles. Check it out!
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