What You Really Need: There are an increasing number of articles in the various "police" magazines, touting various tools that police officers supposedly need to do their jobs. Of course, it is no coincidence that the makers of these "necessities" have full page ads in close proximity to the articles, but hey, that's just business. Law Officer Magazine believes that you need to make objective judgments about what you really need to do your job and succeed. In fact, this article was prompted when another publication claimed that, if you were to be a "real operator", you had to carry their featured custom pistol. The fact that it cost over $3,000 should be no obstacle, because ""real operators"" need this gun! BULL! Now, I was only an officer for 27 years, and only put right at 1,000 people into federal prison. Perhaps these salesmen, er, writers, have more experience than I do. But objectively, do you need a $300 pocket knife? A $500 watch? $250 boots? Or that $3,000 handgun? No! Want, perhaps, but need? No way... (Good article - take the time to read it.) http://www.lawofficer.com/news-and-articles/articles/online/2009/what_you_really_need.html --- NRA-ILA Alerts: List members are encouraged to read the alerts for the week, posted on the NRA-ILA website. http://www.nraila.org/GrassrootsAlerts/read.aspx --- Free NRA One-Year Trial Membership: The NRA is not perfect but higher membership numbers do give it more clout. https://www.nrahq.org/nrabonus/accept-membership.asp --- From Force Science Research Center: I. What you and your department can learn from shooting survivors Part 1 of a 2-part series What helps and what hurts after a fatal shooting? Nobody knows better than officers who've been there. Recently a panel of 6 survivors of shootings in Wisconsin, along with 2 instructors who've collectively been involved in the aftermath of dozens of deadly police encounters, spoke their mind on the do's and don'ts of the post-killing experience. The instructors, Sgt. Mike Kuspa and Lt. Bill Skurzewski, are retired from Milwaukee PD, after years on the Tactical Enforcement Unit. The survivors, ranging from a tactical operator who was forced to kill 2 attackers within a 2-year period to an officer who was so close to the suspect she fatally shot that his blood gushed into her mouth, are still on the street. "Shooting someone is the toughest decision you'll have to make in your life, without a doubt," said Skurzewski. "A lot of weak-kneed administrators don't want to face the truth about what happens or what's needed afterward. But officers who've pulled the trigger can talk the talk because they've walked the walk." In this 2-part series, we've assembled 14 action points highlighted by the panel and instructors during a day-long class on debriefing procedures for supervisors, administrators, trainers, chaplains, counselors, and investigators that Force Science News attended earlier this month [5/09] at the Waukesha County Technical College in Pewaukee, WI. Today we offer 7 considerations for departments in helping surviving officers after they've taken a human life. In Part 2, we'll present 7 responsibilities you have for helping yourself. DEPARTMENTAL RECOMMENDATIONS 1. Properly identify "the victim." And it's not the suspect lying dead in a pool of blood. Unless there's compelling evidence to the contrary, the true victim in an OIS is the officer who's been assaulted and forced to defend his life against an offender's threatening behavior. "The case should proceed in that direction," said Kuspa. "The shooting location should be considered a crime scene. The offense report should list the officer as the victim. You don't read Miranda to victims, and you don't ask victims to write a report. The officer shouldn't be treated as a suspect unless something turns up in the investigation that looks criminal on his part." Some 6 months ago, one of the survivors, Ofcr. Brent Smith of Mequon (WI) PD, shot and killed a suspect who was advancing on his partner with a .30-cal. rifle at the scene of a domestic. He recalled the comfort he felt when he overheard an exchange between his sergeant and an EMS responder. "Where's the victim?" the arriving medic asked, meaning the downed assailant. "Don't call him that!" the sergeant snapped. "Your patient's over there." 2. Remember: Small things matter. Simple, humane gestures can have a significant emotional impact during the stress overload that typically follows a shooting. Milwaukee Tac Ofcr. Kurt Kezeske recalls that at the scene of his second fatal shooting in 2 years, where a raging, crack-head parolee tried to stab him, "My sergeant grabbed me by the collar and dragged me out of the house 30 seconds after the suspect went down. It was one of the best decisions made at the scene because it saved me the emotional stress of having to watch the guy die." Ofcr. Kim Rau of Clinton PD remembered the quiet kindness of another officer after she'd shot a man who'd blasted his ex-mother-in-law in the back with a shotgun. "My hands were shaking so bad I couldn't snap my holster," Rau said. "Another officer stepped up and said, 'I've got it,' " securing the strap. Several survivors cited the special reassurance that derived from their chief saying after their encounter that he was proud of their performance and glad that they were still alive. By contrast, one of the panel told of being coldly pressed into service as an evidence photographer at the scene of his shooting. And Milwaukee Det. Jasemin Pasho, the officer who swallowed her assailant's blood, recalled the hurt caused by a fellow officer remarking off-hand, "If you'd been a guy you might not have had problems that night." Interestingly, she found that fellow officers with less than 10 years on the job--the least experienced--tended to be the most critical. "The older guys were more supportive." 3. Don't isolate the officer. After Muskego Ofcr. Jim Murphy fired 9 rounds into a suicidal subject who pointed a rifle at him, he wandered outside the location for some 30 minutes "with no one paying any attention to me." Then he was escorted to the chief's office, where he sat alone for nearly 3 hours. "When I stepped out to go to the bathroom I was told, 'You've got to get back in there.' No one came in to talk to me. I had nothing to do. I read every magazine and piece of paper I could find. A union attorney finally came in and interviewed me, but then he disappeared. No communication. "I started to get paranoid. I kept wondering, What are they looking for? I thought I'd done things right but now I wasn't sure." By the time he was cleared by the DA's office of any wrongdoing 3 days later, "my stress level got pretty high." Since then, his department has instituted a buddy system, where a fellow officer is assigned to the shooting survivor to provide a reassuring presence, explain the procedures that lie ahead, help in managing personal needs, and answer questions. Beyond the first hours after a shooting, supportive human contact and communication should be on-going, Kuspa stressed. "Supervisors and detectives should make themselves available for any questions or concerns the involved officer may have as the case moves through the system," he explained. "After a shooting is a dangerous time for cops, psychologically," said Smith. "If you reach out to them in a non-judgmental way, they'll know you care and they won't ever forget it." 4. Don't press for an immediate statement. Kuspa recalled a chief who insisted at a shooting scene where the smoke had scarcely cleared that the involved officer give a full account of what happened right then, "or I'll have the sergeant arrest you!" Obviously, that administrator was not a contemporary thinker. The instructors and panelists agreed with the Force Science Research Center that a recovery period (perhaps 24-48 hours) is desirable in most cases before a formal statement is made, allowing stress reactions to abate and memories to replenish and organize. Sgt. David Moldenhauer of Wauwatosa PD's SRT was not consciously aware of how stressed he was after killing an EDP who threatened him with a shotgun, until he tried to make a sandwich after he got home. "I picked up the bread...and dropped it," he recalled. "I picked up the knife...and dropped it. I picked up the peanut butter...and dropped it. My wife got to me before I dropped the jelly." His department had wanted a statement "right away" after the shooting, but his union said no on his behalf, and the department backed off. Twenty-four hours later, he said, he was in better mental and physical condition to comply. Smith said it took him "2 to 3 days before I could give a reasonably accurate account of what occurred." 5. Watch for collateral damage. The impact of a shooting can ripple out beyond the involved survivor and even beyond other officers who were at or near the scene. On his small department, Moldenhauer pointed out, "Several officers who were not personally in the incident did not perform well afterward." There were instances, for example, in which prisoners were put in a cell and officers walked away without closing the door. "You need to check all your officers," he said, and make certain that debriefing and counseling regarding the incident are available department-wide. A concern for well-being may need to extend outside the department, as well. As Murphy explained, not only was his own family affected by his brush with death, but, he was surprised to learn, "other officers' wives were stressed out, too." (We'll have more on spousal reactions in Part 2 of this report.) 6. Know your department's limitations. "Many smaller departments should not attempt to do a criminal investigation of an OIS," Kuspa asserted. "Larger agencies in your state are likely to be more experienced in these matters and will volunteer to help out, leaving you free to focus solely on the internal investigation." Murphy agreed wholeheartedly. His shooting, which occurred more than a decade ago, was the first OIS in his suburban department. "If it had been a questionable shooting, there could have been problems for me because at that time the department didn't know what was going on. "Now we would work in conjunction with the shooting team from Milwaukee PD, which handles these investigations on a regular basis." 7. Involve your trainer(s). Kuspa, a firearms trainer, insisted that "training people need to be involved as the investigations go forward. They may need to educate the command staff on current training protocols and procedures. They will need to learn what happened in the shooting encounter and fix anything in the training program that needs to be fixed. In every case, the involved officer should be brought back to training for a practical review before he or she goes back to the street." In the absence of critiquing and correcting, he warned, the department may be vulnerable to accusations of deliberate indifference. To underscore the point, he described an officer who had been involved in a series of 4 shootings, yet was never sent back for retraining or even required to confer with a department rangemaster before being released for duty once again. His city was sued, could not adequate defend itself, and lost a fortune. NEXT: How to prepare yourself and your family for a deadly force showdown...and what you can do to help yourself successfully meet the challenges of the aftermath. [Our thanks to the Assn. of SWAT Personnel-Wisconsin for alerting us to WCTC's debriefing class and to Jodi Crozier, director of the college's Law Enforcement Academy, for her assistance.] ================ (c) 2009: Force Science Research Center, www.forcescience.org. Reprints allowed by request. For reprint clearance, please e-mail: info@forcesciencenews.com. FORCE SCIENCE is a registered trademark of The Force Science Research Center, a non-profit organization based at Minnesota State University, Mankato. ================ --- From John Farnam: 18 May 09 Pistol grip size/shape, revisited. These sage comments from ATSA Staff: "Over the years of the NTI (National Tactical Invitational), we have done many instances of short-distance, surprise shooting that required sudden presentations of holstered pistols. When engaged in live-fire exercises, and confronting inanimate targets at close range, virtually all Practitioners are observed to use some variation of a two-handed grip and stance. However, in conditions where the target is another human (Force-on Force), Practitioners often draw and fire strong-hand only. So, we decided to do a relative-accuracy study of both styles. A G19 Glock and an S&W, M&P Compact (9mm) were used for this Test. Installed on the M&P was the smallest of the three backstraps available. The Test was comprised of multiple draw-and-immediately-fire drills, five strong-hand only and five using a two-hand grip. Distance was six meters. With the G19, shots fired by most shooters, while shooting one-handed, were biased to the support-hand side of the target. When shooting two-handed, shots were significantly better centered on the body midline. With the S&W, shots were centered on the body midline, no matter which technique was used. My conclusion is that wide-body pistol grips, while currently all the rage, can represent significant accuracy compromises when there is a need to employ the pistol using only one hand. Pistol grips that more resemble a flattened oval appear to us to be consistent with superior accuracy, again when only one hand is on the grip as the pistol is employed." Comment: Even I am amazed at the number of shots that are fired via strong-hand only during the NTI. Statistics from police shooting appear to support that observation, even though we're all trained extensively to draw and fire using a two-handed technique. I'm not at all sure I understand why! I've always found flat-gripped pistols (like the 1911) to be more inherently accurate than round-grip ones, at least for serious shooting. We are apparently irreversibly into double-column pistols, but pointability obviously continues to be directly linked to the degree to which the grip resembles a flattened oval. /John (First, note the tendency not to shoot two-handed when confronted with an animate "target." This is one reason that I do not follow the doctrine of most "shooting schools" - it often fails to reflect what really happens, for most operators, on the street and the folks who participate in the National Tactical Invitational [NTI] match are well above average. Secondly, I find that the curved back strap of the G19 slows my sight acquisition, a problem I do not find with pistols with straight back straps, whether single-column, such as the Kahrs, of staggered-column, such as the HK USP. This is why my own G19 went to Robar for a grip reduction. The S&W M&P pistol, by the way, uses a staggered column magazine, even in its compact version, which I believe adds more credibility to my interpretation.) 20 May 09 News from MA, of all places, from a friend there: "Our local shooting club and outdoor range here in suburban Boston has been around for many decades. We are small and, until recently, have barely been able to persuade enough new members to join us to replace the ones who retire/die! How things have changed this year! In a typical bi-monthly meeting, we used to be tickled to death to have even one new application. Since the election, we're been a averaging eight, new applications per meeting! In other words, in two bi-monthly meetings this year, we've had more applicants than we normally get in several years. And no, we haven't been advertising!" Comment: Even East-Coast Liberals can read the handwriting on the wall. I wonder if they are occasionally tormented by their conspicuous hypocrisy! /John (Big Brother and friends take note - this is a manifestation of the law of unintended consequences.) 22 May 09 Serious Ammunition: When pistol cartridges are fed from the magazine into the chamber, they are struck in the rear by the slide and then pushed forward out of the magazine until the bullet strikes the sloping surface of the feed-ramp. The cartridge is subsequently cammed upward and ultimately all the way forward into the chamber. A problem sometimes arises when, as a result of impact with the feed ramp, the bullet is pushed backward into the cartridge case. At the very least, this exposes bare case edge which causes an abrupt halt in the feeding process. An even more serious condition arises when the cartridge, with its now set-back bullet, actually completes the feeding process anyway and is subsequently fired. This generates pressure spikes which strain, bulge, and sometimes rupture chambers, ruining the pistol and, in rare cases, injuring the shooter. Bullet set-back is particularly likely when pistols are loaded and unloaded often, with the same individual cartridge repeatedly being the top round in the magazine, and thus fed multiple times. With revolver cartridges, a similar problem arises. Bullets on cartridges that are in the cylinder and waiting to be fired sometimes jump forward as a result of recoil from previous cartridges. When they jump forward far enough, they can actually protrude from the front of the cylinder, preventing the cylinder from turning, thus jamming the revolver. Both of these disorders, where migrating bullets cause potentially fatal difficulties for the Operator, are well known to both gun and ammunition manufacturers. To address this migrating-bullet issue, ammunition manufacturers used to customarily roll a cannalure into the outside of pistol cartridges, just at the base of the seated bullet. That little shelf effectively prevents bullet set-back. Similarly, they substantially crimped the bullet in place on revolver cartridges, in order to likewise prevent forward bullet-migration. Unhappily, some ammunition manufacturers, even major ones, have discontinued both practices, either in an effort to reduce costs, or because they have forgotten that lives depend upon the performance of their product! Cor-Bon is one manufacturer who has not forgotten! All handgun ammunition manufactured by Cor-Bon features bullets that are, per the foregoing, mechanically prevented from migrating. They never compromise! This is one reason I routinely have Cor-Bon in my carry-pistols and revolvers. There are many fine companies who manufacture, and re-manufacture, pistol ammunition intended for any number of purposes, not all of which are particularly critical. However, when used for serious purposes, pistol and revolver ammunition must perform. Lives are depending on it! /John (Manufacturers used to put cannelures [sic] around the cases of .38 Special cartridges, below the base of the bullet. I was under the impression that this was down to disguise the "Coke bottle" appearance of the bullet slightly enlarging the diameter of its portion of the case. The odds of bullet setback in autoloading firearms increase as the bullet makes more trips up the feed ramp - do not charge and empty the chamber promiscuously and, if you must engage in this practice, rotate the ejected round to the bottom of the magazine. The odds of revolver bullets pulling free of their crimps are greatly increased with the use of "ultralight" revolvers.) -- Stephen P. Wenger, KE7QBY Firearm safety - It's a matter for education, not legislation. http://www.spw-duf.info .