Ever see tactics so bad you cringe?

[Rex G]

I will say it again in most instances if you see a security guard carrying a gun it's a prop. He might as well be carrying a BB gun

BB Gun? Well, yes, actually, once upon a time, in the Eighties, in Houston’s Near North Side, while our squad was doing a “club check,” we met a security guard, in front of a cantina, who was, indeed, carrying a BB gun, or pellet gun, resembling a revolver, in a flap holster. Unloaded, IIRC; perhaps non-functional.

[Cypher]

BB Gun? Well, yes, actually, once upon a time, in the Eighties, in Houston’s Near North Side, while our squad was doing a “club check,” we met a security guard, in front of a cantina, who was, indeed, carrying a BB gun, or pellet gun, resembling a revolver, in a flap holster. Unloaded, IIRC; perhaps non-functional.

I said earlier in this thread that I won't work an armed position.

Armed guards for my employer make about $16.50 an hour. That's not enough of a raise to make it worth the risk for me.

As I've said earlier every employer I've ever had makes you carry the gun in such a way that it's ineffective for self-defense while making you a target.

It's no different than when the Army used to make me guard the main gate of the post I was on in Germany with my steel pot and my LBE and UNLOADED M16. As in we didn't even have a loaded magazine in the guard shack just in case. We looked just high-speed low-drag enough to get ourselves killed

[JodyH]

Personally, in post-career retirement, I walk through my life looking out for things that may negatively impact myself and those I love. If it doesn't meet that criteria it's beyond my quota of fucks to give. I guess some just have more energy or angst than I do. Criticizing strangers doesn't make me feel like a big man, it just makes me feel like an ass hole and when I get out of bed in the morning I tell myself, "Don't be an ass hole today." Might give that a try.

To be fair I cringe when I see some construction guy walk under a suspended crane load, stand between the cab and the trailer as a forklift is loading the trailer with pipe, a guy 30' up a unsecured ladder leaning way off to one side, some dude jumping down into a 10' deep unshored excavation, opening 480V without arc protection, or one of a million other ways people manage to put themselves into potentially deadly situations for no fucking reason other than laziness or ignorance.
If this was a construction themed forum i'd probably make a post about it.
Do I walk over and try and discuss it with them when I see it happen?
No.
I've found that the people who put themselves into those situations usually don't react well to being corrected on site by a stranger. They are ignorant and/or lazy and they'll defend to the death their right to be ignorant and lazy.
Would I bring it up on a construction themed forum so others with a like interest can discuss it and maybe do a little self-analysis and think, damn i've been getting lazy myself.
Probably.
It's not about "criticizing strangers" or walking away think i'm a "big man" it's about tossing out a reminder that people do stupid shit with potentially serious consequences and you or I might just be that person after a little reflection.
Being an "ass hole" would be to silently observe bad behaviour and just keep any potential lessons to be learned to yourself. Keeping it to yourself also prevents you from learning from others observations or recollections of similar situations they've observed ar even put themselves in.

But you go on being you.

[Hambo]

To be fair I cringe when I see some construction guy walk under a suspended crane load, stand between the cab and the trailer as a forklift is loading the trailer with pipe, a guy 30' up a unsecured ladder leaning way off to one side, some dude jumping down into a 10' deep unshored excavation, opening 480V without arc protection, or one of a million other ways people manage to put themselves into potentially deadly situations for no fucking reason other than laziness or ignorance.
If this was a construction themed forum i'd probably make a post about it.
Do I walk over and try and discuss it with them when I see it happen?
No.
I've found that the people who put themselves into those situations usually don't react well to being corrected on site by a stranger.

Same here. If asked by someone I would tell them something is dangerous, but unless it was a kid I wouldn't run over to tell somebody they're being an idiot. I think it's from being raised in the Midwest.

[Chuck Haggard]

Every time I watch Cops....

[JodyH]

Every time I watch Cops....

Live PD... Cops is soooo 1995.

[peterb]

Keeping it to yourself also prevents you from learning from others observations or recollections of similar situations they've observed or even put themselves in.

I am grateful for all the flying magazines that ran “there I was, did something dumb, thought I was going to die” columns and stories over the years. Reading those helped me recognize some bad decision chains and break them before it was too late.

If you’re an observer, there’s a difference between “I’d never do something like that” and “I realized how easy it is to do something like that.”

[BehindBlueI's]

If they just rolled up in a dodge caravan wearing skinny jeans and carrying backpack then no one would even know they had cash.

Somebody knows, because they work there. And they run their face, intentionally or not, to the wrong people. Some might be surprised how many robberies are inside jobs and how often victims are actually accomplices in certain areas.

I will also state that the armored car guys are not carrying that gun to protect the money. They're carrying that gun as a visible deterrent to make you think that they're willing to protect the money. IOW it's a prop.

Now I can't speak for some of the high-speed low-drag security companies out there but HSS, G4S, Allied Universal, Loomis, Brinks, Garda or Securitas if you even touch your gun you're through.
...

I will say it again in most instances if you see a security guard carrying a gun it's a prop. He might as well be carrying a BB gun

When I was going through the hiring process for the PD, I worked two part-time jobs (and some construction on the side). One was as an armored car guard for AT solutions. The year before I started they had a guard killed in a robbery, and another guy was tased the month I started. Wearing a vest was optional. I was the only one who did so of the guards I worked with, and in the whole company the only other guy I saw wear one was the one who'd been tased. We weren't fired for touching our gun, but most of the guys probably should have been if they did. I was carrying a .357 magnum with nylon clad bullets.

Every time I watch Cops....

Bad tactics make more interesting television.

[Jeff22]

Some people employ bad tactics because they don't know any better, and some people employ bad tactics because they become complacent and some people employ bad tactics because under stress they get too excited.

I've worked with a couple of cops over the years who just got REALLY excited anytime anything "in progress" occurred and they'd drive too fast, talk too much on the radio, forget to coordinate with the other cops once they got on scene, and forget to use available cover. Disregard proper procedure, like on a high risk traffic stop with potentially armed suspects, run up to the car and try to pull the driver out through the window.

When I complained to the patrol supervisor the response I got was "I can't do anything because I wasn't there and I didn't see it" and "It's just a difference of opinion. There are more than one way to make a high risk traffic stop."

My response was, shouldn't that guy do it the way they train in the academy or how we practice in in-service training?

Fortunately, the two guys I worked with who were prone to do stuff like this are now safely retired.

[todd]

Here is an equation, I share with people I train. "Awareness+distance divided by time=tactics"

The more you are aware of what is happening around you, you can then begin to adjust to the situation, and always have line of action.
The amount of distance and time, comes into play when/what you can do.
All these come together to dictate the "tactics" you can or will employ.

I sum this up, with a few actual situations that happened to me, and demonstrates the difference of which they come into play.