Desperate OIS from San Bernardino

[willie]

I found a phrase I can use: spending time under somebody else's desk. I described more than one foot kisser as having lots of suction(instead of pull).
Thank you, Hambo .

[jnc36rcpd]

The D.C. Metropolitan Police lost its range at the old Lorton Reformatory after an outside instructor doing a downed officer drill in a submachine gun course inadvertently had trainees launch multiple rounds over the backstop into a residential neighborhood.

Downed officer drills are very relevant to street cops, but are obviously require careful planning and supervision. While live fire has some advantages, the majority of training like this might better be done with Simunition or similar technologies.

[HCM]

So nobody dabbles in it anymore?

It’s still part of the FLETC curriculums.

Our agency still covers it annually. But it’s definitely something you can do quicker and safer with sims.

[fastbolt]

Serious question based on what we see in body cam footage- should heel mag releases come back?

Why would they need to be reintroduced?

In my opinion, much of what was seen demonstrated in that video would charitably be considered to fall under the heading of training issues. (Arguably meaning failing to adhere to training regarding 'best practices' found in LE training?)

Sure, the side-mounted thumb operated magazine catch (whether button or lever) may be more susceptible to user error (grip error, manipulation confusion, etc), but again, those are essentially training issues (and user attention to training and recurrent practice to ingrain the proper manipulations). The heel mounted magazine catches introduced other disadvantages that were eventually determined to be more detrimental to the survival of users in dynamic encounters, though.

[fastbolt]

The mere idea of it causes palpitations and ructions to traditional LEO Range Officers(read: qualification safety drones) to a possibly fatal degree. So running it as a guest agency on a range is problematic.

It requires very careful backstop management and 1 to 1 instructor-student ratios(2/1, even 3/1 is mo better) and is rather time intensive.

It needs the "Explanation, demonstration and practical application" followed by "crawl, walk, run" dry fire reps and then live fire.

Rainy weather turns it into a muddy wallow, which sends females into tears...and quite a few of the males as well. Expect conniption fits.

Even motivated range officers(both of them) will have their lives flash before their eyes at least once across a qualification cycle.

For a large and very bureaucratic municipal department (that hires what it can get) it would probably best be done with SIRTs and Airsoft.

I ran it once. And while it was later acknowledged as excellent training(a couple of years later) at the time I was persona non grata among the, shall we say, motivationally challenged contingent of the department.

I left the range the next year and it was never mentioned, even as a concept, ever again.

Yeah, I remember in the years of our outdoor range, even kneeling in the water-puddled sand would cause tummy upset for many. Even when the qual notification told everyone to Dress for Conditions, there would inevitably be people showing up in their work uniforms or suits (plainclothes), acting surprised when told to go to kneeling or prone/supine. I'd imagine it would be no better on the more modern indoor range, as it's hard, cold and covered in casings, etc, but I wonder if it's done anymore. I know that the range work I invested in my instructor training/practice stood me in good stead for my introduction to Simunition scenarios, as I found myself diving to the ground and rolling around under a table to resolve a Sim-induced stoppage while incoming dye-marking bullets were filling the air where I'd been stranding. I thanked the taskmaster head trainer of our FTU staff upon my return to my own agency, as I'd been the only 'good guy' student to survive the Sim scenarios without being hit by the dye rounds. That's when I decided that the 'train as you fight & fight as you train' mantra might have a kernel of substance to it.