From room clearing to stress inoculation, these quick, affordable drills help officers build critical skills even when training time is short
Police Training Week focuses on how agencies can develop training programs that reduce risk, improve performance and save lives. No resource is in shorter supply for trainers than time. This article shares practical, scalable drills that can deliver meaningful learning outcomes -- even when training time is limited. Police Training Week is sponsored by T4E - Training for Engagement.
We never have enough time to do all the training we want to do. Worse yet, it can be a struggle to get the time to do the training we're required to do by policy, state law and case law. Even though time may be short and funds may be limited, there are a few simple things we can do that cover a lot of different topics, tactics and scenarios.
The following bite-size training drills don't require a lot of resources. They only require good instructors and a basic understanding of adult learning.
Before beginning any type of training, do a safety assessment and make sure you have everything you need on hand and ready to go. The safety assessment is a critical element in all training but especially when conducting reality-based training. Mistakes in this area result in people being injured or killed. This is completely unacceptable and avoidable with good scenario instructor training and safety protocols.
All these drills are meant to incorporate critical thinking skills, tactics and decision-making. They are not meant as "gotcha" opportunities for instructors or role players, so after your safety walkthrough, conduct a detailed briefing of the scenario, the lesson plan and the performance objectives with the class. Instructors and role players need to understand their roles and responsibilities, including their options, to make sure everyone stays on-script.
As much as possible, we want everyone who goes through the scenarios to get the same training value. There will be variations depending on skill and experience levels, but we should keep the performance objectives consistent for everyone. This repeatability in the scenario also keeps role players in character and limits improvisation.
Each of these drills is scalable from being simple and affordable to complex and specialized. We will cover how to do these very inexpensively and with few resources, and you can tailor each one to meet your own needs. The goal here is to keep it safe, repeatable and affordable.
So, if you're short on training time, here are a few drills you can use to deliver maximum training value and impact.
Room or building-clearing exercises are a terrific way to deliver impactful training with very few resources. All you need is a facility, a role player or two, and an instructor to create highly effective scenarios that encourage decision-making under pressure. Even without the use of force-on-force gear, this type of training adds stress because officers are searching while looking for, and expecting, the unknown.
Clearing exercises are great scenarios to run on quiet night shifts. It helps keep everyone involved and aware while polishing their skills at the same time. On my patrol teams, we did a lot of clearing exercises on night shifts or on weekend day shifts using the police department to clear. It was a good choice, because we could secure all live firearms and ammunition to conduct safe training in a safe environment while using plastic training pistols.
When setting up a room- or building-clearing scenario, think about creating angle problems that need to be solved. Clint Smith, the founder and former director of Thunder Ranch, compares building searches to a game of pool. Just like a game of pool, searching a building is a geometry problem involving angles, placement, anticipation, and skill. Searching buildings and playing pool requires tactics that identify the best angles allowing players to outmaneuver their opponent. For more information on building-clearing, check out "Building searches: A resource and geometry problem."
Another consideration is the use of light and dark areas that create problems for officers to solve. Seeing from brightly lit areas into dark areas may require flashlights and flashlight techniques. Conversely, if you provide a route through dark areas to see into or access brightly lit areas, there's an opportunity for instructors to discuss the use of darkness as cover.
Speaking of using areas of light and dark to create problems, doing a low-light scenario creates additional training opportunities and objectives. It should be obvious the use of flashlights and flashlight techniques would be used and discussed, but low-light scenarios go far beyond the light. Low-light scenarios create opportunities for additional judgment, communication and decision-making training.
Humans are highly visual creatures. Most of what we do on a daily basis is centered around visual input. Officers look for threats, violators and criminal activity. We respond to those problems based on what we see. When light is reduced or removed, it can be extremely uncomfortable. It's not natural for us to be comfortable in the dark, so continuous training and exposure to diminished lighting conditions can increase awareness and confidence when we work in those conditions.
Any scenario we do in the daylight can be effectively done in low-light conditions. If we want to keep it simple, dispatch an officer to a report of a suspicious vehicle in the park at night. Using the police department parking lot or garage, set up a non-force response scenario forcing officers to use light effectively to illuminate, navigate and investigate. If you make it a multiple officer response, they must communicate and coordinate in reduced light conditions just like on the street.
We can maintain the standard of doing high-quality scenario training with minimum time and expense and increase the complexity of a scenario by adding an element of Stress Inoculation Training (SIT). SIT scenarios help prepare officers for the psychological and physiological challenges they face during intense situations on the street.
An example would be a scenario where officers respond to a call of a loud domestic dispute with possible weapons involved. Dispatch reports multiple conflicting 911 calls of people fighting and possibly a man with a gun. When officers arrive on scene, they need to safely and effectively deal with the situation involving highly emotional people, conflicting information, background noise, a role player acting aggressively, people filming the incident, and possibly a language barrier. This is a realistic scenario that can create significant stress.
The benefits to SIT scenarios like this include decision-making under duress, distinguishing between real and perceived threats, prioritizing interviews and responses, officer communication and coordination, situational awareness, emotional regulation and verbal tactics under stress to name a few. The result is overall improved decision-making, enhanced emotional regulation, reductions in use of force errors, and more resilient officers who are better equipped to manage chronic stress and anxiety.
This kind of scenario is highly effective when combined with a debrief that includes officer safety, tactics and acknowledgment of how officers were affected by the stress. Individual officers should be encouraged to provide feedback on what they did that was effective regarding stress response, decision-making and communication.
As simple as these scenarios appear, they provide a significant amount of information to cover during the debrief. Instructors who are skilled at debriefing scenarios create long-term learning opportunities instead of time-wasting "check-the-box" drills. It is possible to create valuable and effective scenarios that make our people better. Frequent, short drills like these build readiness and resilience even when time is scarce.