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Thread: Gracie "GST" Taser breakdown and Commercial

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    Default Gracie "GST" Taser breakdown and Commercial

    Nakedly commercially self serving but...

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4VeHOkt_o8

    His Taser knowledge may not be all that, but he's basically right about empty hand control.

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    Kit,

    That was interesting to watch and listen to their analysis (though not so much the marketing as you warned us).

    What do you (and other readers of course please chime in) identify as the biggest barriers to more comprehensive and effective training? Are they financial? Due to poor pedagogy? Lack of desire on the part of management or rank-and-file?

    I would be interested in hearing examples of good and great training and officer development, either contemporary examples or looking back, as there are so many examples of just the opposite.
    Al Heinemann
    www.shofukan.ca

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    Its all those things, Al - briefly:

    Financial
    Training costs money. Each officer not on the street needs to be backfilled, or, is one officer not responding to calls or handling cases. In some cases you can run short (at "minimums") in order for people to get training, but in others, every officer at training (also getting paid) necessitates an officer on overtime.

    Not to mention all the other things that have to be trained and officers taken off their normal duties: vehicle operations, first aid/AED, law updates, procedural updates and changes, workplace diversity, workplace harassment, cultural sensitivity, CIT/mental health, etc. etc. etc.


    Cost-Benefit wise? Uses of force are comparatively rare. Uses of force beyond minimal use of force (semi-compliant subject who is convinced with basic hand on control, maybe a minor joint lock, and cuffing) rarer still. Why take people off the street for a few hours or even an entire day or week to train them? Remember too that their instructors are rarely full time teachers but only teach as a collateral assignment - so you are taking them away from their jobs as well.

    Pedagogy:
    While I am a proponent of officers volunteering to be use of force instructors (firearms/defensive tactics/"groundfighting"/taser/other less lethal methods), the fact of the matter most of them are woefully undertrained and under-prepared for teaching. And yes, that is the instructor cadre.

    The fact of the matter is, in my experience (19 years), the best instructors ALWAYS are those that have developed and continue to develop their skills outside the law enforcement system. These are not necessarily the ones who end up teaching. Many choose to stick to the LE program, and while still being called "instructors," get certs to teach in a 40 hour class followed by an 8 or ten hour day once a month or so, if that.

    Common sense will tell you that no one is even all that good in terms of individual performance, let alone to teach others, with so little practice time. Yet that is the standard.

    Lack of Desire
    Yes - Management lacks the desire for the financial and staffing reasons noted above. Rank and file lack the desire to train with instructors offering questionable material that the instructors themselves don't understand beyond the surface level. And instructors lack the desire to train themselves to a level of excellence because there really is no need.

    And since - full circle now - uses of force are relatively rare, and not really predictable, the whole thing breeds a cycle of complacency.

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    A friend and a partner made an arrest recently. It was a foot race that they were going to lose. One yelled Taser! and the suspect dropped and rolled to dislodge the barbs that were never deployed. They yelled Taser! again and he dropped again...... which slowed the suspect down enough that they caught him. LOL
    Ed Boyd

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    Officers need to be quick minded and be able to improvise quickly because suspects are always pulling all sort of things out from left field just to mess you up.

    Dad and I had coffee with a State Police officer who is a friend of the family. He was in a vehicle pursuit trying to get someone pulled over and just as he caught up to him he hit his brakes but Hugh was able to avoid hitting him. Then he tired it again. He told us 'I don't know what was wrong with the damn crazy fool.' Dad told him he wasn't crazy he was trying to deploy your air bags so you couldn't see.

    Expect anything.
    Ed Boyd

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    Quote Originally Posted by CEB View Post

    Expect anything.
    Exactly, Ed. That Taser story is a good one, capitalizing on a common tactic used by suspects to defeat the Taser.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Hissho View Post
    Yes - Management lacks the desire for the financial and staffing reasons noted above. Rank and file lack the desire to train with instructors offering questionable material that the instructors themselves don't understand beyond the surface level. And instructors lack the desire to train themselves to a level of excellence because there really is no need.

    And since - full circle now - uses of force are relatively rare, and not really predictable, the whole thing breeds a cycle of complacency.
    And it seems that, as with the discussion on cynicism, it comes down to individual officers pursuing these attributes on their own and with whomever else shows up to do the work. Once-in-awhile perhaps a person of influence will get onboard and steer an agency or a team in the right direction for as long as they can sustain it. The exception seems to be specialized teams.
    Al Heinemann
    www.shofukan.ca

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    To be sure - or, some personal incident or event affecting the profession will cause either individual or policy changes.

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