SWAT & Tactical

Jim Weiss and Mickey Davis Dateline 2017: Two heavily armed suspects in a high-intensity drug trafficking area barricaded themselves in a car. Cleveland (Ohio) Division of Police uniform patrol officers called for a SWAT assist. SWAT responded in their Dragoon Patroller, an Armored Rescue Vehicle (ARV), nicknamed “Mother II.” Cuyahoga County (OH) Sheriff’s Office SWAT also responded in their Lenco BearCat® ARV. Both law enforcement vehicles, Mother II and the sheriff’s BearCat, sandwiched the suspects’ car in between them. Even…

 Todd Burke, Jim Weiss and Mickey Davis Having a solid medical component integrated into your tactical team is not just an option. According to the National Tactical Officers Association’s (NTOA’s) list of “best practices” in 2003, it is a standard. Sixteen years before the NTOA’s best practices were presented, the “Tactical EMS School” was created by four active police paramedics who recognized the need to deliver true medical support into the inner perimeter. The school offered a way to bring…

Mickey Davis, Jim Weiss, Bob O’Brien, and Mark Prince P&SN looks at the SWAT standards and performance of three separate law enforcement agencies in the US. How might these compare to your own department or agency? Although there may not be any current national or state SWAT officer standards in the United States, recommendations and guidelines are put forth by organizations such as the National Tactical Officers Association (NTOA), the Ohio Police Officer Training Academy and California POST Commission on…

  Jim Weiss, P.J. Ryan and Mickey Davis This jointly taught combat casualty course stresses that officers should possess the ability to press home the fight and render aggressive patient care, not only to themselves, but also to others who may have been injured. Law Enforcement (LE) trainers previously taught that, if a police officer’s hand or arm was injured in a gunfight, he /she was to put that arm/hand behind his/her back and continue the combat course with the…

Todd Fletcher Responding to alarms, locating suspects, and investigating burglaries are just a few of the calls which require superior searching techniques and tactics. SWAT operators and patrol officers spend a significant amount of time conducting searches of buildings, yards and other areas. As such, both operators and patrol officers need to be properly trained and equipped for conducting safe and thorough searches. Whether deployed on a SWAT mission or working the streets, we need to condition ourselves to look…

Al Baker, Jim Weiss and Mickey Davis This natural, smooth, tactical movement style works well with ballistic shield use. The objective of this article is to review and expand the tactics of walking and shooting while employing a handheld ballistic shield. This broader understanding helps to provide effective lethal force to active threats without distracting the operator, thereby achieving a higher level of live fire movement using unconscious proficiency. Developed as a result of over 25 years of firearms training…

Any tactical first aid kit should include combat vetted and tested treatments for the most common and deadly types of injuries found in a hazardous environment.“No widely accepted, specialized medical training exists for police officers confronted with medical emergencies while under conditions of active threat,” researchers noted in “Police officer response to the injured officer: […]