Evidently, police officers are now expected to risk drowning to save uncooperative, fleeing suspects from situations that they (the offenders) get themselves into:
https://abcnews.go.com/US/man-drowns...ry?id=71172077
ETA: Of all of the water rescue training that I have had (while working for a police department on one of the Great Lakes) in my LE career, none of it ever required that officers put themselves in danger (We do not add to the 'body count') to effect a rescue.
Last edited by the Schwartz; 06-11-2020 at 11:16 AM.
''Politics is for the present, but an equation is for eternity.'' ―Albert Einstein
Full disclosure per the Pistol-Forum CoC: I am the author of Quantitative Ammunition Selection.
This is an area in which I have professional expertise (rescues while in clothing and gear). Absolutely not on the idea of cops being expected to perform water rescues like this.
My background: https://www.businessinsider.com/mari...-course-2013-5
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I am most decidedly not an expert in the area and have the good sense not to jump into the water after a fleeing suspect whose (probable) intent is to drown me to effect his/her own escape. I've seen training of the sort that you mention—I believe that it was BUD/S—where they are thrown, hands-bound behind them, into a pool and told to 'make it work'. I am Open Water SCUBA certified so being under water is not a big deal to me, but damn...some of what they had to was waaaaayyy beyond my comfort level.Originally Posted by LittleLebowski
About a year before I retired, we had a kid (18, maybe 20, years of age) riding a stolen bike who bailed and tried jumping across a large drainage ditch that was filled with about 10 feet of water and loaded with all kinds of brush and debris as he fled from us. Not sure exactly where he went in, but we looked for him and never found him, assumed that he'd gotten out down-stream and just kept running. About 90 minutes later, our dive team found him snagged/twisted up in bramble at the bottom of the ditch a few dozen yards from where we thought he jumped in. Point of all this is, is with all kinds of gear (soft body armor, Sam Browne belt and equipment pouches) and clothes, even a strong swimmer would have a hard time holding their own let alone trying to rescue someone who might not wanna cooperate in their ''rescue''. LE has already devolved into a kind of ''no matter what you do, you can't win'' and it looks like it is getting worse.
While I am pleased to be done with the profession, I pray everyday for those who are in the field doing a thankless job. They are indeed the real heroes!
''Politics is for the present, but an equation is for eternity.'' ―Albert Einstein
Full disclosure per the Pistol-Forum CoC: I am the author of Quantitative Ammunition Selection.
Yeah, the hands and ankles tied thing isn’t a big deal to me. Now, full combat gear (not tied up) was a motherfucker.
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MCIWS is legit, dude. Props. IIRC, I was Q rated, by a hair. That underwater swim portion in cammies absolutely murdered me.
"Are you ready? Okay. Let's roll."- Last words of Todd Beamer
It was totally worth it to work at two different training tanks
An underwater swim in boots, cammies with pockets open, Kevlar, flack, and deuce gear hurts
#RESIST
What's next...if someone runs from the cops in a car and their car crashes and they die - the cops are guilty of their deaths?
#RESIST
I don't have the training LL does, but I do have two accredited swiftwater rescue classes under my belt. It was beat into us to not attempt rescues unless properly equipped. The portion of the class where we simulated combative victims was eye opening. Even fully equipped with PFD's it was extremely difficult to rescue someone that did not want to be.
The year I started in SAR we had a 7 year old kid chase a beach ball into a popular local lake. He started thrashing so an athletic 35 year old man went in to save him. The little guy got a hold of the man and they both drowned. Panicked people in water are a legit life threat to rescuers. I participated in and taught river rescue as a swimmer for about 30 years. There's no way I would advocate that any responder attempt an in-water rescue without training and practice.
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