Editor's note: Through the end of the year, we will be posting a series of articles that focus on common-sense officer safety. Use them for briefing and squad meetings, and send them to everyone you know who wears a badge.
Around North America law enforcement officers and trainers are still talking about officer survival, and still training to survive. But too many officers are focused on surviving violent encounters rather than focusing on winning. The time has come to say enough is enough. The law enforcement profession needs to stop training to survive and train to win.
Survival for many people is defensive in nature. In a violent encounter it is not enough to be defensive and hope you survive. Some officers do some heroic things to ensure they survive, and you have to admire them for those actions. However, after reviewing these events you are always left to wonder if the outcome could have been different if the officer had been trained to win instead of just to survive.
Winning is a mindset. A mindset developed through rigorous, ongoing, relevant training, preparing your mind for where your body may have to go and making a commitment to always be better tomorrow than you are today. Winning is about professionalism, dedication, courage, honor, integrity and humility.
Winston Churchill addresses this concept in the following quote:
"Victory at all costs, victory in spite of terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without victory there is no survival."
Some of the takeaways from Churchill's quote include:
• The costs in the law enforcement profession are high, but we can take action to dramatically reduce those numbers.
• Winning is not an easy path, it takes work and effort.
• Sometimes you will have to overcome fear to prevail and win.
• Survival is a by-product of winning; it does not work the other way around.
Training to win has multiple components:
1. You must train to a level of competence and confidence in skills, tactics, legal authorities and use-of-force. All of these will help you have that “aura,” that command presence that clearly tells a subject, "If you mess with me, you will lose."
2. Training to stay focused and stay in the fight until you have won, even if you are injured.
3. After the fight, having the ability to self-treat wounds and take action to save your own life.
4. Possessing the ability to articulate why what you did was reasonable based on the totality of circumstances.
As a profession it is time to stop talking about and training for survival. As a profession we need to train to win.
For those of you who believe this is just semantics, just a word game and that winning and survival mean the same thing, I would ask you to consider this: Imagine someone in your life who you love so deeply that you would give your life for him or her. Now imagine a violent criminal bent on causing them serious harm or death is attacking them. Would you want your loved one to simply survive that violent encounter, or do you want them to win?
If you are like every other officer I’ve asked, your answer is, “I want him or her to win.” Then there is a difference. This is not semantics. This is life and death.
Below 100 is an initiative focused on winning. You can chose not to wear seatbelts and drive too fast and hope you survive a crash. You can refuse to wear your body armor and hope you aren’t faced with an armed suspect or, if you are, that you survive the shooting. You can allow yourself to slide into complacency and hope you survive the attack. Or, you can train to win by embracing the tenets of Below 100:
• Wear your seatbelt
• Wear your armor.
• Watch your speed.
• Continually ask yourself, What’s Important Now?
• Remain vigilant, train, prepare and avoid complacency.
During this holiday season, a time of distraction and historically a deadly time of year for law enforcement officers, remember your loved ones. Let them serve as a reminder of why you need to train and prepare your mind and your body to win, not just survive.
