Road to Reserves - Emergency Vehicle Operation Classroom & Course

Many of the principles we learn over the course of this reserve academy will help us to remain safe from harm in our personal lives. We have honed some defensive tactics skills, in the event we ever need to defend ourselves, and spent a good number of hours at the firing range, in case we choose to arm ourselves with a personal handgun.

Driving is no exception. Surprisingly, the concepts we covered this past week are not specific only to emergency vehicle operation. Instead, any driver can implement these techniques to reduce their likelihood of being involved in a crash.

Emergency Vehicle Operation Course Classroom 1 & 2

We spent Tuesday and Thursday nights in the classroom, gearing up for our first day behind the wheel of a patrol car on Saturday.

Law enforcement professionals spend a tremendous amount of time behind the wheel, so learning good fundamentals and focusing on safety is key. Because of all that driving, we were told peace officers are eight times more likely to be involved in a collision than the average driver. They are also more likely to die in a crash than as a result of a felonious assault.

During the class, we covered some basic guidelines for staying safe on the road.

1. Watch your speed. This is the primary preventable cause of crashes and the most frequent complaint from the public regarding peace officers’ driving.
2. Clear intersections. When entering an intersection with lights and sirens on, we must ensure the vehicles in each individual lane have stopped completely. Verbalizing the check of each lane and making eye contact with every driver will help us complete this safely. 
3. Know your newer vehicle. As of 2012, all new cars are equipped with an anti-lock braking system (ABS), electronic steering control (ESC), and traction control. These features impact how a vehicle operates, so we need to understand them so as not to exceed our vehicle’s capabilities.
4. Look where you want to go. Keep your eyes on the path you want to travel, not nearby obstructions or objects on the side of the roadway. Your car will drive toward wherever your eyes are looking.
5. Give the road its due. The term “multi-tasking” is actually a misnomer, since a person can only truly focus on one thing at a time. For this reason, we should commit our full attention to the road and resist the urge to work on any tasks that can wait until we reach our destination.

Next up were some technical concepts that reminded me of barely passing physics class in high school. We discussed how rolling friction, rotational inertia, gyroscopic precession, and centrifugal force impact our ability to accelerate, steer, and stop efficiently.

Awareness of these force factors will allow us to anticipate and, at times, counteract their influence.

Learning about electronic steering control

The Oregon Revised Statutes shed light on our legal driving authority. Emergency vehicles, as defined in ORS 801.260, have some special driving allowances, but only under certain circumstances. These exceptions, outlined in ORS 820.300, include the ability to “proceed past a red signal” and “exceed the designated speed limits.”

ORS 820.320, Illegal operation of emergency vehicle or ambulance, further specifies these exceptions are granted only when the driver is responding to an emergency call. Additionally, a visual warning (in the form of emergency lights) must be displayed when the vehicle is exercising these privileges.

During our second classroom session, we watched a number of unsettling videos of crashes involving patrol vehicles. The message behind this footage was that a great number of crashes are avoidable, so long as we constantly keep safety in mind and don’t exceed the vehicle’s, or our own, capabilities.

We are able to look at case law, such as Biscoe v. Arlington County, to further guide us. This precedent states peace officers must in every case weigh the benefits of immediate apprehension against the risks of pursuit.

“Pursuit” is a word commonly heard in emergency vehicle operation discussions. There are actually two distinct types of pursuit. A pursuit of a person clearly involves trying to stop and apprehend a fleeing suspect, while the pursuit of time occurs as a peace officer tries to quickly respond to a priority call.

While we cannot safely practice pursuit driving in emergency vehicle operation course (EVOC) training, we can build necessary skills and engrain safety basics and good driving decision making.

Emergency Vehicle Operation Course

I was told by a friend that one of your first thoughts when starting the first day of EVOC is something to the effect of, “I am a terrible driver and I don’t know how I ever earned a driver’s license.” This was a fair assessment.

Most of us probably believe we’re decently skilled behind the wheel of a car, but learning the safe operation of a patrol car can be humbling. 

My view from the back seat!

We gathered in a large parking lot where a number of patrol vehicles, and an even greater number of orange traffic cones, were arranged. While I anticipated a slow start, we quickly hopped into vehicles and hit the road! The first time I took the wheel was driving at the speed limit through winding roads east of Beaverton and then on the highway to return to our original location.

The twisting roads provided the opportunity to practice “cornering,” which is a technique to safely round corners, while remaining prepared to respond to any obstruction that may appear around a blind curve.

More shuffle steering practice

This was also our first chance to practice “shuffle steering,” which is quite different than the hand-over-hand steering method I’ve been using for the last 17 years. Shuffle steering involves drawing an imaginary vertical line down the center of the steering wheel. The left hand remains on the left side of the wheel, and the right hand remains on the ride side. The driver’s hands sit at 3:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. and retain contact with the wheel at all times.

We returned to the course and took turns navigating it. We had a variety of vehicles to choose from, including Ford Crown Victoria, Chevrolet Caprice, Dodge Charger, and Ford Explorer. We were encouraged to try out different models throughout the day.

The day’s courses included several different driving challenges:

• Accelerate to 40 mph and then “threshold brake,” which is braking as quickly as possible without engaging ABS.
• Parallel parking on driver’s side and passenger side.
• Slalom driving around cones, forward and in reverse.
• Driving around a curve, forward and in reverse.
• Parking, forward and in reverse.
• Rapid lane changes.

Many an orange cone was squished among the 13 of us. Overall, we did all improve throughout the day and discovered our personal areas of proficiency.
 

Next week we will be tasked with completing two laps of a difficult course, with a time limit.

Recap

Somehow, each week it surprises me to glance at our schedule and see we are one week closer to graduating. At this point, we have only five weeks of classes before our final exam.

With that said, I think it’s time for me to go study my ORS books and practice reverse slalom driving!

Road to Reserves - Narcotics Team, Mental Health Response, & Range 6

Remember when I said we’d had our final day at the range? Well, I was wrong.

Rather than luxuriate in our first two-day weekend in three months, our group of seven County reserve recruits spent Saturday doing additional firearms drills. Sure enough, we learned a thing or two.

First though, we got to hear from two special response teams from whom we will be able to request assistance.

Narcotics Team

The Westside Interagency Narcotics (WIN) team is composed of representatives from a number of local law enforcement agencies, as well as the Oregon National Guard Counter-Drug Program, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Drug Enforcement Agency.

This team generally handles mid- to high-level narcotics cases, including surveillance, search warrants, investigations, and clandestine lab processing. As reserve deputies working with regular full-time deputies, we can call upon WIN representatives to assist with complex drug cases.

We learned about the various types of narcotics commonly found in Washington County. Many drugs, such as cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine, come in different forms with different “high” duration lengths. The street value for these substances also varies a great deal.

While we will carry test kits to determine whether an unknown substance is in fact a narcotic, it will be important for us to be able to visually recognize drug paraphernalia we might find in legally authorized searches of individuals or vehicles.

We chatted briefly about the upcoming legalization of recreational marijuana possession and use on July 1, 2015. The impact of this change on the work of law enforcement professionals remains to be seen.

The extraction of THC-concentrated BHO (butane honey or butane hash oil) from marijuana plants is a dangerous process that can sometimes cause extreme and potentially life-threatening explosions. We may be called to an unexplained fire or explosion, only to determine that narcotics manufacturing played a role. Only a couple days after our WIN class, another hash oil explosion story hit the news.

Mental Health Response

It is no surprise that mental health issues play a significant role in many of law enforcement’s calls for service and the custodies entering the Washington County Jail. Peace officers in Washington County are fortunate to enjoy the assistance of several mental health related resources.

The Washington County Sheriff’s Office (WCSO) Mental Health Response Team (MHRT) involves patrol deputies riding with trained mental health clinicians from LifeWorks Northwest. These teams respond to calls for service involving a mental health component and can help de-escalate crisis situations.

MHRT duos are staffed from 11:30 a.m. to 11:00 p.m., seven days a week. If a deputy or officer encounters someone with mental illness outside these hours and needs support, they can call the Washington County Crisis Line for a phone consultation. Additionally, staff from the Washington County Crisis Team (separate from MHRT) may be dispatched to the scene if needed.

Alarmingly, we were told one in five adults will experience mental illness in any given year, and one in twenty will have a serious mental illness event. As a result, MHRT’s other services are very valuable. They range from helping to determine if an individual should be hospitalized to advocating for clients and helping families develop safety plans and treatment options.

We talked about how best to communicate with individuals experiencing a mental health crisis. Understanding the symptoms of common mental illnesses may help us achieve a calm and productive dialogue.

Active listening skills will be useful in many of our reserve deputy duties. We talked about specific techniques to build rapport with a distressed or angry person, such as using open-ended questions to draw out the root cause of their emotions.

Some students participated in “Back to Back” exercises at the front of the room. Sitting in chairs and facing away from one another, one candidate would play the role of peace officer and the other would be barricaded subject. The officer was tasked with initiating a conversation and attempting to build trust with the subject in order to convince him to surrender and agree to get help.
 

It is beginning to sound appealing to eventually join just about every special team we hear from!

Take a look at our WCSO Mental Health Response page or the Washington County Crisis Services page for more information. If you have concern for a friend or loved one suffering from mental health crisis, you can call the Washington County Crisis Line at 503-291-9111.

Range 6

Turns out warm and rainy beats cold and clear at the range. Saturday morning was very cold and I spent the first few hours shivering under my many layers.

We started with a cold qualification, in which I shot a 92%. Still not as high as I would like, but better than last week’s score. We all qualified with no problem and it was good to see we had retained our needed skills.

The WCSO requires all paid and unpaid (reserve) deputies to demonstrate certain skills outside of the qualification rounds. These “performance observations” are timed drills we each did individually.

Keep a pocket full of rounds at the range

The most challenging performance observation was to perform a combat reload and fire two rounds in less than five seconds. We began with an empty gun and magazine, with the slide locked open (as though the gun had run dry when firing). We were instructed to eject the empty magazine, insert a new one, rack the slide to load a round into the chamber, and fire two rounds accurately.

When we were all found to be completing this task too slowly, we practiced again and again and again. The next time we attempted to complete the task in under five seconds, thankfully we were all successful.

We also performed a number of frustrating, but helpful injury drills. We were asked to consider how we would effectively draw, fire, reload, and handle malfunctions if one of our arms was taken out of commission. Say, for example, our dominant hand received a gunshot injury or we dislocated a shoulder.

Completely operating a firearm with only your support hand is extremely difficult. Even breaking holster retention and drawing a pistol from the dominant side of your body with your support hand is tricky. We learned how to safely hold our pistol between our knees in order to turn it around or insert a new magazine.

See the dirt by my front sight?

The most surprising skill was learning how to rack the slide of our pistol with only one hand. With my strong hand I was able to hook my sights on the back of my holster and forcefully rack the slide. On my support side, however, I had to kneel down and rack it on the bottom of my boot! As you can see, I ended the day with a filthy duty weapon.

We also managed to squeeze in some practice firing around barrels at the 25-yard line, which is the component of qualification rounds I needed to work on the most. Two magazines and some personalized instruction later, I saw an improvement.

The day ended with a PowerPoint presentation about off-duty concealed carry and how to keep ourselves and our family members safe now that we will run the risk of being recognized by offenders when out in public.

Recap

 

View from the passenger seat

I spent much of Sunday on my first patrol ride along since the academy began. It was a lot of fun to get out on the road, scanning for traffic violations and responding to calls for service. Getting to see concepts implemented in real life, when I had only previously discussed and analyzed some of them in class, was a plus. 

The ride demonstrated how much I still need to learn. In talking with coworkers after the fact, I see this is the beauty of our line of work. 

Certified deputies will experience something new and different every single day they’re at work. And on top of that, the WCSO offers a wide array of special teams and collateral duties to further broaden our experience. We will continue to learn every time we hit the road or enter the jail!

Road to Reserves - Patrol Tactics 2 & 3, Con Sim 1

Don’t forget – Thursday, April 30, 2015 is the last day to apply for the Washington County Sheriff’s Office Reserve Academy beginning in January 2016.

Click here to submit your application today!

My heart rate elevated just recalling and writing about last week’s classes. We had a week full of realistic, adrenaline-fueled scenarios and I’m very excited for you to read about it!

Patrol Tactics 2 & 3

After our review of search and seizure principles the week prior, we spent Tuesday and Thursday evenings running through true to life, low-conflict scenarios with a role player.

In each situation, a Beaverton Police Department (BPD) officer played a member of the public. Two reserve candidates played primary and secondary peace officers tasked with interacting with the unidentified individual.

The students were provided a brief description of the environment they were entering. For example, they might be told to view the training room as Beaverton Transit Center, and interact appropriately with the individual they observed there.

If the subject committed a pedestrian violation or a crime, the primary officer was to make contact, identify him or herself, and determine how to lawfully proceed. If the subject was observed to have been behaving in accordance with the law, the primary officer was to engage him in mere conversation, which is consensual.

Oftentimes, after requesting an ID or during a search of a subject, the circumstances of the stop or conversation would change. During the initial contact to discuss a violation, students would sometimes uncover evidence of a crime or learn the person had a warrant out for their arrest. In these instances, the peace officer had developed probable cause to arrest the subject and needed to initiate that process.

My scenario involved a man I observed committing a Trimet violation at Beaverton Transit Center. I immediately had legal authority to identify him in order to issue him a citation. When I asked the man for his identification, he pulled two Oregon driver’s licenses out of his pocket and fumbled with them before putting one back in his pocket and stating that it belonged to his girlfriend.
 

This immediately raised my suspicion. When I asked to see the second license, the man declined. I later obtained the ID and asked the man for the name of his girlfriend. He could only give me her first name, which was also very suspicious. At the time, I could not determine whether I had probable cause for any crime. I ended up writing the man a citation for the violation I originally witnessed and I sent him on his way.

During our debrief, we discussed some of the avenues I could have taken to investigate the extra driver’s license to determine if my subject had committed a crime, as my intuition was suggesting. For the next day or two, I replayed the scenario in my head and thought about what I would do differently next time.

On Thursday, our scenarios expanded to include a few new elements. One such addition was the concept of a Terry stop, which occurs when a peace officer has reasonable suspicion a person committed, is committing or is about to commit a crime. A pat down for weapons is then legally authorized if the officer reasonably suspects the person is presently armed and dangerous.
 

We also watched two students do a vehicle stop scenario. We will learn a lot more about these in the coming weeks, but this was a good introduction to some basic safety factors and legal issues regarding drivers and passengers.

These scenarios provided our first true taste of the multi-tasking skill required by law enforcement officers and deputies. We needed to listen to dispatch and relay information back to them, communicate with our partners, remain aware of our environment, engage our subject in conversation, mentally sort through statutes and case law, make firm decisions, and maintain excellent officer safety, often simultaneously.

It was slightly overwhelming to think about so many things at once, but I feel confident that time, experience, and additional training will help us feel more natural and competent.

Con Sim 1

Not all of us slept well Friday night, knowing our first con sim session was ahead of us Saturday.
 

Con sim stands for confrontation simulation. This is some of the most realistic, high-stress scenario training we receive in the reserve academy. We knew we would walk into situations that require extremely quick thinking, good decision making, good communication, and possibly the legally justified use of force.

The value of these exercises is that in times of high stress, our minds will scan our mental files, looking for prior relevant experiences. The more training scenarios we experience, the more “files” our brain can browse for solutions if we get into difficult situations while on patrol or in the jail.
 

We geared up in our duty belts and ballistic vests. We were provided a pistol and extra magazines loaded with Simunition paint rounds. If we pressed the trigger of our gun, it would actually fire a reduced-energy cartridge with a paint tip, meant to break apart on impact and mark the target.

Magazines with paint rounds

A radio, inert pepper spray (aka not spicy/painful), a non-functioning training Taser, foam baton, neck guard, and helmet completed our look.

Throughout the day, we each ran through seven separate scenarios. In some scenarios, a BPD detective played the role of cover officer and would only act if we, as lead officer, made a request or otherwise communicated with him.

Before each scenario, we staged outside a door and received information from “dispatch” regarding the call to which we were responding. We replied “copy,” to indicate we heard and understood the information, and then sometimes gave information back to dispatch about our intended actions.

Walking through the door, not knowing exactly what or who awaited us on the other side, was a very powerful experience. I realized that in this environment, we were all extremely vigilant and focused when walking into unknown circumstances. It will be important for us to maintain this concentration once we get out onto the road or into the jail. We must not become complacent as our confidence and abilities grow.
 

In our third scenario, I was instructed to do a walkthrough of a local park. Dispatch did not alert me to any suspicious circumstances. As I entered the “park,” I observed a man running toward me, yelling that someone was chasing him and was going to kill him. This man appeared to be panicked, grabbing at me, shouting, and acting erratic.

I told the man to calm down so I could get more information. I had to push him away because of how roughly he was trying to hold on to me. When I asked the man whether his attacker had any weapons, he replied that the suspect had a gun.

I had just unholstered my duty weapon when a second individual ran into the park. I immediately observed a pistol in his hand, which he quickly raised and pointed at us. I fired my weapon, striking the suspect in the chest. He fired one round back, missing both the first man and me.

Once the suspect had been stopped, I moved around to a better position. The first man continued to yell and hold on to me. I repeatedly instructed him to move back so I could keep an eye on the suspect and my surroundings, but he did not obey my commands.

I drew my inert OC spray and told the man something to the effect of, “Back up and be quiet or I will spray you.” The man continued to ignore my commands, so I sprayed him to get him down on the ground and under control. I needed to continue to be able to keep both of us safe if the circumstances changed.

“End scenario” was called out. Shakily, I left the room and began a debrief with an instructor, who asked me to describe my experience. I explained what I had observed, how the two individuals had behaved, and why I was lawfully authorized to use force against both men in the scenario. The instructor confirmed I was justified in my actions.

Each scenario provided valuable lessons about how I can improve.

In this situation, I couldn’t remember whether I had time to yell commands at the suspect before he pointed his gun at the victim and me. I wasn’t sure exactly how many rounds I had fired at the suspect. It is very important to focus on remembering these details in order to both articulate the justification for my use of force and accurately document the suspect's and my actions in a thorough and accurate written report.

I also need to work on quickly centering myself after the stress and intensity of a dangerous or deadly situation has subsided. With experience, it will become more natural to immediately jump on the radio and call for backup or medical support and assure dispatch that I am unharmed. I may need to reload my pistol, move to a safer location or tend to victims at the scene.

Some things I did well, which boosted my confidence. I had instinctively asked about the presence of weapons without thinking about how that was the “right” thing to do. My firearms training kicked in and I quickly and effectively stopped the dangerous suspect.

Gaining confidence in my legal knowledge, intuition, and skill was the biggest benefit of the day. I was very happy once eight hours and seven scenarios were finished and it was time to go home. But wouldn’t you know it, by the next day I was itching to do some more con sim scenarios!

Recap

Going into the reserve academy, I was very unsure as to whether I would ultimately want to pursue a full-time paid deputy position.

This week pushed me a little further into the “maybe” category. It felt great to go through so many intense, dynamic scenarios and come out feeling successful. I think it also gave many of us a boost in our excitement to graduate and get out on patrol or work in the jail.

We’re feeling lucky to have been chosen for this incredible opportunity and to see some solid results from our stellar training. I hope you’re thinking about joining us!

Road to Reserves - Radio Procedures, Patrol Tactics 1, & Range 5

This week brought a lesson about the value of resiliency and positive thinking. It also inspired me to start practicing the phonetic alphabet while driving around in traffic!

Radio Procedures

Many law enforcement professionals agree their radio is one of the most important tools they carry. This device is a lifeline of communication, information, and assistance if a peace officer’s safety is threatened.

A former WCSO reserve deputy, who was later hired as a regular full-time deputy, presented an introduction to radio practices. This was one of those classes where the phrase “drinking from a fire hose” comes to mind. We have a lot of information to memorize and will need to get used to simultaneously hearing, understanding, and responding to messages from various sources once we hit the road.

We covered three key things to remember as radio operators. First, think before you transmit. It’s just like practicing in the mirror before giving a big speech – this will help us deliver a message that is clear and concise.

Second, airtime is precious. As a Washington County reserve deputy, I will be sharing radio channels with many other on duty individuals. Only one deputy may speak at a time on any given channel, so we must focus on keeping our messages short and necessary.
 

Finally, always be professional. We have an obligation to treat one another with patience and respect on the radio, just as we do when speaking in person. This includes speaking to dispatchers, with whom we have little face-to-face contact.

Each agency has a directory of radio channels accessible to their staff. A radio can be set to any zone between A and J. A channel knob can then be set to any number between 1 and 16. This results in a total of 160 different channels (i.e. A8, E2, J6, etc.). Using the map of channels, peace officers can communicate with others from their agency or other local agencies, depending on the situation.

Another common use of the radio is to contact dispatch and ask them to look up an individual or a vehicle. Since some words and letters may be difficult to understand over the radio, we need to learn a commonly accepted phonetic alphabet. “Charlie” and “Zebra” are easier to audibly differentiate than “C” and “Z.”

CAD (computer-aided dispatch) is another integral part of our communication system. We can access this computer program on our MDTs (mobile data terminals), which are the laptops in our patrol cars. This resource allows us to accomplish tasks manually without taking up radio airtime. This can include adding ourselves on calls, checking the call history on a location or communicating with other deputies.

Patrol Tactics 1

In preparation for some realistic exercises in the coming week, our first patrol tactics class included a great deal of review regarding search and seizure. Fully comprehending our Fourth Amendment legal authority to search suspects and their property, and to seize any evidence we may find, when warranted, will be central to our daily operations as peace officers.

We also reviewed the difference between mere conversation and a stop. Mere conversation is a legal term for a consensual encounter between a member of the public and a peace officer. The officer has no legal authority to stop the individual, but the two may converse for as long as the civilian continues to consent.

A stop, on the other hand, is made when a peace officer witnesses an individual commit a violation or a crime. This gives the officer the legal authority to detain the person for as long as reasonably necessary to investigate the incident and obtain the person’s identity.

Differentiating between these two concepts and knowing how to lawfully proceed in both situations will help us ensure we do not violate anyone’s Constitutional rights in the performance of our duties.

I anticipate our upcoming exercises will be valuable, as we will have the chance to run through different situations with a partner and determine whether we have legal footing in our decision to stop, question, and/or search a suspect. We will then have the opportunity to debrief with our instructors and classmates to ensure we were acting appropriately.

It may also demonstrate to us the reality that peace officers do sometimes inadvertently make mistakes. This will be a safe environment in which to assess and discuss our actions and then to make any adjustments necessary before we get out on patrol.

Range 5

Our final day at the range as a group! Check that off the list.

We began the morning with a cold qual. That meant doing a full qualification course without any practice time first. I scored a bit above 88%, which I was not particularly pleased about. I’ll come back to that later.

The rest of the day included a number of new, fun courses of fire. Many of these included shooting at steel so we could hear the satisfying ping of our rounds hitting the target.

Through the use of time constraints and difficult courses of fire, our instructors try to create situations that will increase our level of stress. The goal is to prepare us to shoot accurately in life and death situations. While it’s difficult to create situations as stressful as a real life officer-involved shooting, they do a good job of preparing us.

At one point, half of us were instructed to run out of the range pit, around a corner, reach a Beaverton Police Department van in the parking lot, and come back. This led to increased heart and breathing rates and shaky hands. We lined up at the 15-yard line and attempted to hit one of two hostage takers on a target, without injuring the light gray hostage in the foreground.

Group two took their turn and then group one began the same run again. This time, we were told to complete 10 pushups (on gravel, mind you) upon returning from the jog and before taking our shot. Eventually, group one did a third run and returned for a final shot at the hostage takers.

My first hostage taker shot on the left

This gave us a taste of how challenging it can be to take a distance shot when your heart is racing and you are breathing hard. I found I needed to consciously calm myself and slow my breathing while I took my shot. I landed one shot on each of the two hostage takers and one shot just to the right of one. I successfully avoided hitting the hostage.

One of my favorite activities of the day was referred to as “Rolling Thunder.” Seven candidates stand on the ten-yard line in front of five, evenly-placed steel targets. Shooter one shoots target one, then shooter two shoots target one, and so on. After the last candidate successfully hits target one, shooter one begins again, this time shooting target one and then target two. Shooter two shoots target one and then target two, and so on.

This continues until it’s time for shooter one to hit all five targets consecutively. Every other shooter on the line follows suit. The goal of this exercise is to shoot accurately, be aware of your surroundings, manage reloads, and to communicate. When done correctly, it sounds like one long rumble of rolling thunder as you hear the rhythmic clang of rounds hitting steel for the entire time the shooters are active.

We did a number of competitions, too. We alternated shooting solo, with partners, and in teams. As much fun as it is to excel in these rivalries, it is also fantastic to see your classmates performing well and everyone cheering for one another. You didn’t hear it here, but we did have a candidate beat an instructor (whose name I won’t dare mention) during a one-on-one competition. The instructor evened the score in a rematch.

Time to collect brass!

Prone shooting, or lying on the ground on one’s stomach and firing, was previously discussed, but we hadn’t yet gotten the chance to try it. We moved all the way out to the 50-yard line and half of us safely went down to the ground with our pistols drawn. It took a little maneuvering to figure out what position would be most comfortable and stable, but nearly all of us hit steel on our very first try.

How could I have forgotten to mention brassing ammo until now? At the close of each range session the candidates removed their duty belts and got to work picking up the hundreds of brass shell casings we left littered on the ground. In addition to this being pretty decent exercise, it was a nice chance to slow down and come back together at the end of a long day. I think I may actually miss collecting brass with my team.

Recap

Honestly, I think I went into Saturday’s class with a less than ideal mindset. I felt tired from my week, sore from an injury, and ready for the weekend to really start on Saturday evening. My performance in the cold qual revealed this.

My subpar qualification score then impacted how I continued to shoot. Knowing I hadn’t done as well as I wanted distracted me from focusing on fundamentals like steady trigger press and ensuring my magazine was properly seated in my pistol.

It took going to lunch and having some of my incredible classmates give me pep talks to get me back on track. Everyone has good and bad days, and it is best to keep a focused mindset and an optimistic outlook. Knowing others support you makes this much easier.

This coming week will consist of three high-intensity, likely stressful classes. Now is the time to study, develop a good, prepared attitude, and get excited about the challenges we will learn to overcome. I can’t wait to report back next week!

Road to Reserves - Domestic Violence, Defensive Tactics 7, & Range 4

I got to deliver fancy new duty rain jackets to all the WCSO reserve candidates this week.

Our gear and uniform items hold symbolism for us, I believe. It’s almost as though we are more worthy of wearing these articles as we progress through our classes and demonstrate new competencies. 

It looks like we earned our personalized rain gear just in time!

Domestic Violence

Unfortunately, peace officers often see domestic violence (DV) problems in our local community. Educating ourselves about offender and victim behavior, available resources, and officer safety concerns can help us be more effective in the field.

We began by reviewing what relationship types qualify as domestic, for the purpose of charging domestic violence crimes. 

We looked at the specific offenses commonly found in these situations, such as assault, harassment, menacing, rape, and unlawful use of a weapon.

Strangulation is another specific, very serious offense we may encounter. This is a particularly troubling transgression, as it often represents a disregard for human life that can precede the crime of criminal homicide.

It was startling to learn that only about four pounds of pressure are required to prevent blood from flowing to a victim’s brain or to prevent oxygen from reaching their lungs. Conversely, approximately 20 pounds of pressure are needed to open a soda can.

The symptoms of strangulation can be difficult to perceive, but the lasting impact of the injury can be very damaging, and even fatal. This reinforces our responsibility to thoroughly question victims and address and document even the slightest physical symptoms we observe. Summoning medical assistance for a strangulation event could potentially save the victim’s life.

In 2014, there were nine domestic violence-related homicides in Washington, Multnomah, and Clackamas counties combined. Since DV episodes tend to escalate over time, it is vitally important that peace officers investigate all DV calls thoroughly, document evidence, photograph injuries, be knowledgeable regarding community resources, and take enforcement action when warranted.

For those of us who are WCSO reserve deputies, keeping the WCSO Core Values in mind while investigating DV crimes will ensure that we treat victims with the understanding and respect they deserve. All of us, peace officers, we should work with patience and compassion in order to avoid re-victimizing the individual.

Defensive Tactics 7

Ground fighting, at long last! This class was an intimidating prospect that had been looming in my future. But, as with all of our other defensive tactics classes, this one just turned out to be a lot of fun and a lot of good exercise.

We first tackled an integral component of protecting ourselves from violent attacks – how to fall safely. Not only do we want to remain uninjured if we fall or are pushed to the ground, we also want to land in a position where we can easily get to our feet again.

Again and again we fell or were pushed to the ground, each time folding our legs in a way that made it easy for us to avoid injury and quickly get back on our feet.

Taking a much needed YouTube break during DTs

We geared up with our duty belts and chose partners. The suspect tried pinning the officer to the ground in a variety of positions. Using a handful of practiced tactics, the officer essentially wiggled away from the suspect, protecting him or herself from blows, and using the ground for leverage to come to their feet.

We slowly increased the intensity of our practice, using greater strength to pin an officer and escape from a suspect. As usual, we all became sweaty and tired. I regretted having so much hair to get tangled and end up stuck to all my classmates. Better securing it will be my priority in the future.

Another consideration is how to safely retain and control a duty weapon while on the ground. Drawing a pistol and aiming it toward an armed and dangerous suspect is fairly intuitive; however, we still needed to practice keeping our legs out of the muzzle’s path. 

We worked on keeping our guns trained on a moving suspect by remaining on our backs and using our legs to rotate our body, all while keeping our pistols pointed in a safe and legally justified direction.
 

One of our last drills was how to disengage from a suspect who is holding us to the ground, against a wall. Many of the same principles from our other drills applied. Pivoting our hips and using our arms to create strong frames against a suspect can enable us to rise to our feet. Having a wall to “inch up” can be a benefit as well.

You better believe we all left class with a nice variety of bruises, scratches, muscle aches, and mat burns!

Range 4

What did I say last week about our good weather luck? Saturday’s low light shooting class at the range was not only dark, but very rainy as well. We got started at 1400 (2:00pm) under a light downpour. Break out those new jackets!

We tried qualifying in the rain for the first time. Though working with a wet pistol and wet hands is very different, we all still managed to qualify with no problem, and many of us even improved our score from last time.

Surprisingly, we got the opportunity to try “Groucho” walking! If we ever happen to engage in a use of force situation with our pistols, there is a chance we will need to be moving toward a suspect rather than standing solid in a proper stance. The Groucho technique taught us how to maintain a steady shooting platform and clearly see the suspect as we move forward.
 

Practicing our Groucho walk

Practicing a rolling step while approaching our target gave us a sense of how steady movement can yield better firing accuracy. An instructor was matched to each shooter and walked directly behind that individual for an extra measure of safety.

Then it came time to figure out how to hold a flashlight and shoot our pistol at the same time. There are four standard ways to hold both items at the same time, and it is generally a matter of personal preference as to which the officer chooses.  

Trying to stay dry for a few minutes, at least

I preferred the “Harries technique.” My support hand holds the flashlight and crosses under my dominant hand, which holds my pistol in a single-handed grip. I press the backs of my hands together for more stability while firing.

We completed a selection of courses of fire under the low light, using our flashlights to illuminate the target. Some of these involved standing or kneeling behind double stacked barrels and firing around them on our strong side.

Our final activity was to ready ourselves behind the barrels and when given the command, draw our weapons toward our strong side. Random photorealistic targets of individuals had been posted at the end of the range.

Using our flashlights to reveal the person and what they were holding, we had to pause long enough to determine whether we were legally justified to shoot. In the darkness, it was often difficult to speedily assess whether an individual held a firearm, drill or even a golf club pointed in our direction.

This exercise was very effective in demonstrating the quick and significant decisions law enforcement officers are forced to make, under stressful and challenging circumstances, compounded by low light conditions.

Recap

Thursday night wrapped up our defensive tactics training and this coming Saturday will be our last scheduled range day. Checking subjects we’ve covered off the list is a satisfying feeling and allows us to focus on what’s ahead.

This also serves to paint a comprehensive picture of the many proficiencies a deputy or officer must master. I appreciate this opportunity to share that perspective with those of you who read this blog.

In the coming weeks, we will begin learning what patrol tactics we will utilize out on the road, as well as how to use our radios.

As always, I welcome and encourage your questions and feedback along the way!

Road to Reserves - K9s, Defensive Tactics 6, & Range 3

Though I wasn’t proud to be the first candidate to miss an academy class last week, it is a wonderful testament to my classmates’ focus and work ethic that their attendance has been stellar.

I returned from visiting family in Arizona renewed and ready to get back into the swing of things. There’s nothing like hopping off a plane and heading straight to defensive tactics training!

K9 Tracking & Narcotics

Learning about K9 tracking and narcotics was fascinating, to say the least. We spent some time covering the tasks performed by various K9 teams throughout the country, how they successfully complete their sweeps, and how we can best serve as support to our furry partners.

Rigorous and repetitious training for months on end develops both a working partnership between the handlers and their dogs as well as a clear and trusting friendship. I watched as the handlers were focused, serious, and deliberate while tracking, but as soon as the task was completed, it was all love and affection. Really the dog just wanted his toy!

We were fortunate enough to watch our K9 coaches complete searches for narcotics strategically hidden around our training room. Big surprise, the dogs were outstanding in their ability to locate.

Part of our class was focused around a vital part of any search, which is the support of accompanying officers and the roles we play in protecting the K9 and the handler. While we may think of the K9 as being a menacing threat on its own, they count on us to watch their backs while they are nose to the ground.

Scent is the clear marker the dog follows. We learned scent can travel with the wind, up walls, and can even be blown around by passing traffic. Therefore, it is also imperative that we use good judgment in locating quality starting points for our K9 teams and try not to contaminate the path with our own odors or even our car emissions.

The most exciting part of the night was an exercise where we all broke up into small groups each with a K9 team going to separate locations designating suspects and officers for a scenario drill. My partner and I left a trail detectible only to the dog as we hurried off to hide behind a dumpster in a parking lot several blocks away. After a few minutes, the dog was on to us. He alerted perfectly and received his deserved treat.

It was most certainly an exciting class and I look forward to more experiences with our four-legged partners.

*The above K9 and Narcotics summary was written by 
WCSO reserve candidate David Huey. 

Defensive Tactics 6

Thursday night’s defensive tactics instruction focused on edged weapon defense. There may come a time when we are in a hands-on use of force situation with an individual when he or she reveals a hidden knife. Alternatively, a person holding an edged weapon could charge at us before we have time to use one of our tools.

In order to injure us, the individual must be able to touch the weapon to us and be able to move the blade against us. This means we must focus on preventing at least one of these elements – either by keeping the knife a safe distance from our body and/or immobilizing the weapon.

Using rubber knives, we worked on protecting ourselves from weapons coming at us from different directions. The way we defend ourselves from injury will vary slightly depending on how the attacker is holding a knife. Just as in the past, we worked in suspect/officer pairs.
 

Once we are able to avoid the blade, we need to work on gaining control of the dangerous suspect. This may mean bringing the individual to the ground if we are able, or quickly creating distance from them and deploying a tool.

During one of these drills, my suspect and I became tangled together and fell to the ground. I was able to roll away onto my back and draw my blue training gun from my holster from that position, all before the suspect reached me. From there I could give commands for the suspect to stop approaching me.

This scenario taught me I need to better focus on maintaining my balance and a low center of gravity. Perhaps a better response would have been to hop to my feet and create distance from the suspect after we fell, but I came to a resolution without being “injured.”

Between our class of 13 and the numerous defensive tactics instructors we’ve worked with, we represent a wide variety of body shapes, sizes, and strength levels. This provides us the valuable opportunity to get more realistic experience trying to gain control of suspects.

Range 3

We all know our luck is going to run out sometime. This was our third gorgeous, sunny day at the range!

By now, it is a piece of cake to shoot slowly and deliberately, nice and close to the target. Start speeding up, shooting from further distances or shooting around objects and things get a little trickier. Our ultimate goal is to be able to land as many rounds as possible in a sizable rectangular area in the center of the target, regardless of the shooting conditions.

We previously covered most of the courses of fire (or types of shooting scenarios) we would see when required to qualify. The one remaining mystery involved big bullet-riddled, plastic barrels sitting way back at the 25 yard line.

Instructed to don knee pads, we learned how to draw our pistols and kneel behind a barrel, using it as protection. We then practiced one of the more challenging courses of fire involved in qualifying.
 

At the 25 yard line and in 55 seconds or less, we must draw, kneel, shoot two rounds to the right side of the barrel, two rounds over the top of it, two rounds to the left side (which for most of us is our weaker, support side), perform a tactical reload, and then complete two more shots from whichever position we prefer (generally over the top again).

We finally got our first crack at doing a full qualifying round, to assess our skill level and see where we need to improve. We made 50 shots, from a variety of distances with different elements added in. For instance, during one course we were instructed to shoot a total of 12 rounds. We are required to do a tactical reload at some point, whether it is after shot 1, after shot 11 or somewhere in between.

I scored 96.8% on my first try at qualifying. A score of 80% or higher is passing, and a score of 100% means all 50 shots made it into the “5” zone in the middle of the target.

My score dropped to 91.2% on my second try, which was frustrating. One way I’ll be able to bring my score back up is to better manage my ammunition. This means reloading to a full magazine whenever I have the opportunity, rather than waiting for my pistol to run dry in the middle of a course of fire.

We finished the day with some “ball and dummy” malfunction drills, since it never hurts to get more practice. This involves randomly loading regular rounds and dummy rounds (which won’t fire properly) into our magazines. Malfunctions then spontaneously occur once a dummy round reaches the chamber and we try to fire the pistol. We work through our systematic steps to get the gun into a properly functioning condition again.

We cleaned our duty weapons and headed home to enjoy the sun!

Recap

We are creeping up on the halfway mark of the academy!

We are all progressing along in good spirits. As our instructors promised early on, we now spend a lot of break time laughing, sharing police-related YouTube videos, and cracking jokes.

I believe we have confidence in one another and do our best to make training effective for one another. This may mean studying together, offering technique improvement suggestions or playing a worthy opponent in DTs. Our collective success depends on this kind of productive dynamic.

Thanks to Mr. Huey for covering a portion of this blog post in my absence!

Road to Reserves - Midterm, Defensive Tactics 5, & Range 2

I caught myself standing in a peace officer’s “ready” stance at a convenience store the other day. Feet shoulder width apart, light on my feet. Alert, facing the door, distancing myself from any possible foreseeable threat.

Of course, our law enforcement training has and will continue to bleed over into our off-duty habits and behavior. Keeping this in check, and avoiding becoming hyper-vigilant rather than responsibly cautious and alert, is imperative. To me, this is just one more form of balance we must keep in mind as we move forward.

Class 22 - Midterm & Calls for Service

It seemed as though our group’s collective nervousness before the midterm Tuesday was akin to pre-tasing levels. Before the test, we worked together to review core concepts and quiz each other.

The exam consisted of 40 multiple choice, true/false, and short answer questions. As each of us finished the test, we moved back to the training mat room to wait for everyone to finish.

Just like in grade school, we exchanged tests with our neighbor and went over the answers together. I missed three questions, for a final score of 92.5%. Every one of us passed! All those hours with our flash cards paid off.

Before we were permitted to leave and celebrate our success, we briefly covered the basics of calls for service. Calls for service are the calls peace officers respond to. These can be either self-initiated (the deputy or officer makes the first contact) or public demand (a member of the public makes the call to police, generally via a 911 or non-emergency dispatch call).

Harkening back to school once again, we will focus on collecting details as to the who, where, what, when, and how of the crime. Active listening and thorough documentation in our notebooks will prove to be vital to our report writing success.

Class 23 - Defensive Tactics 5

Weapon retention was the name of our game on Thursday night, in particular retaining control of our duty pistols throughout a fight.

We learned two methods for anchoring our pistols to our bodies if a suspect is attempting to pull our gun from its holster. Rather than training with our real weapons, we used plastic training “blue guns” as an added layer of safety.

The next step was to disengage from the suspect in order to give commands, use a defensive tool (if appropriate), and take the individual into custody.

We worked with partners to practice a variety of suspect/peace officer positions. The first drill involved standing chest to chest with a classmate. The suspect could wrap his or her arms around the officer any way they wanted, trying to put them in a position of disadvantage.

As soon as the suspect grabbed at the officer’s duty weapon, the fight was on.
 

We did the same exercise with the suspect at our side, behind our back, and even pinning the officer up against a wall with their arms trapped at their sides.

This amounted to a whole lot of grappling. Despite taking frequent breaks and trying to stay hydrated, we all became very sweaty and exhausted. Our instructions were to work at about 50% intensity, so as to give each other a realistic challenge but hopefully not injure one another too badly.

I enjoyed the free flowing nature of these exercises. We do utilize specific techniques to disengage from the suspect, but if someone is trying to grab my gun, I can legally assume they want to shoot me. I have a broad authority to prevent them from doing so, any way I can. I can’t bite my classmates or stick my fingers in their eyes in training, but out in the real world I might be forced to use unusual tactics.

Last, we covered how to retain our pistol if it is already out of the holster and in our hands and a suspect grabs onto it.

We had fun comparing our scraped hands and bruised forearms. Injuries don’t usually become too apparent until we’re finished and our adrenaline rush wears off. It’s easy to get so immersed in the training drills, you barely notice any pain.

Class 24 – Range 2

That is, you barely notice any pain until you have to shoot all day with slightly mangled hands and arms that feel like gelatin.

After a few rounds to re-familiarize ourselves, we began by increasing our distance from the target. Our instructors reminded us that as you move further away from the target, nothing changes. Correct stance, drawing, sighting, and trigger press are all done exactly the same.
 

To this point, we hadn’t been shooting under any stress circumstances, except perhaps for a bit of nervousness in the training environment. At the conclusion of our firearms training we will need to qualify, which means shooting to specifications like accuracy, distance, number of shots, and time constraints.

Our instructors added a time component by watching a stop clock as we completed courses of fire. We fired our guns as instructed and would then get feedback about whether we had drawn our pistols, fired the correct number of rounds, and reloaded (during some courses), all while maintaining qualifying accuracy and staying within the time limit.

We also worked on adding movement to our shooting, to add a new element of realism. Depending on the direction called out right before our instruction to fire, we would quickly step either to the left or the right, draw, and fire.

 

Reloading magazines between courses of fire

Shooting with one hand and shooting with our non-dominant hand were techniques we were looking forward to trying. We stood very close to the target for this exercise. I am right-handed, and shooting only with that dominant hand felt fairly natural with some extra focus. Transitioning to shooting with my left hand, however, felt completely strange.

At the conclusion of our range day, and having been instructed to bring gun cleaning kits, we sat down inside and field stripped (or disassembled) our pistols just as we had done in the classroom. We cleaned our duty weapons together as a group, covering all the important do’s and don’ts (like no steel brushes – they will etch the metal on our guns).

Recap

Maintaining balance is one of our central defensive tactics principals. While on duty, we’re safest if we rest on the balls of our feet, ready to move at a moment’s notice.

It will become important for us to maintain other kinds of balance, as well. We must keep a healthy boundary between our work lives and our personal lives, for instance.

With 40 hours a week spent working at the Sheriff’s Office and 16 hours a week in the academy, my world is very law enforcement centered right now. This doesn’t even take into account personal time spent with friends from work and other reserve candidates.

As many of us move into full-time law enforcement or corrections careers, we will hopefully remember the value of maintaining other interests and hobbies, cultivating relationships with friends outside of the public safety profession, and keeping family relationships healthy.

As someone who is writing this post from (mostly) sunny Arizona, where I’m spending time with family, I’d say getting out of town and taking a short break from law enforcement isn’t half bad. You’ll hear from us again next week!