Panhandlers and the like might get it when you say,
“That’s close enough!”
Keep in mind if they’re not right in the head, words won’t matter.
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I would train officers to park the LE vehicle (an excellent piece of cover) a short distance away and park it sideways to the person of interest (close but not too close). I would think there is a gate or some way to access the area of interest. Hard to tell from the video.
Exit and move to the opposite side (preferably behind the engine block, in case the person has a firearm, this will likely stop/divert the rounds). Engage the person in conversation (voice or bullhorn) from there. If they charge, they will need to dive over the car to get to you.
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And when they ignore the officer?
Stand firm until you get backup. End of the video you can hear sirens in the distance, so they are out there. If you are alone, with no one to watch your back, it’s better to be over-cautious than to let your guard down, in particular, if you suspect someone is high on dope.
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Contextual, but, I’d be willing to be that most departments aren’t sending multiple units for a simple trespass. This was discussed in the video. It’s often a one officer situation.
The reason you hear backup I suspect because an Officer Down call went out (officer may have even hit an oh crap button on his radio that isn’t in the video/audio)
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Since it was stated the officer should have been aware the perp was a frequent flyer and drug user it would have been prudent to have his duty gun in his hand and be ready to fire should the guy attack.
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That’s a two edged sword. While you’re right; it could set off a guy that is mellow just enjoying being high. Being hooked on drugs is a different conversation.
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I can’t speak too much towards LEO training, but, my impression, generally, just because someone is known to LE/frequent flyer, doesn’t necessarily justify approaching them as a high risk encounter with gun in hand. We’re still talking about a potentially unarmed/not visibly armed, individual person, call response for trespass. Gun in hand probably isn’t going to be the way
I think ASP broke it down pretty well but, not closing the distance quite as much as the officer and responding better/faster once he moves at the officer seem to be LE lessons here?
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I disagree, had the officer been holding his gun as soon as he saw the knife being held in a hostile manner he may have been able to save himself, or at least minimize his injuries, it would require a lot of shots but it would have been a fully justified shooting. .
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Of course, in hindsight knowing the officer was attacked with a knife we can say he would have been better able to respond if he had a gun in his hand
But as a matter of tactics, of SOP, officers probably aren’t going to/can’t approach with their gun drawn for every trespass call.
It’s just generally not justified or appropriate to approach gun drawn for a simple trespass of a person who does not appear to be armed.
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I didn’t say drawn in hand means holster unlocked and the gun is ready to be drawn.
It wouldn’t take but a half second to go from holster to firing and firing a lot, a trespassing call is a serious matter and not to be taken lightly as are most calls LEO’s are dispatched on.
And backing up is real stupid, too dangerous and shows weakness.
That also would generally not be appropriate for that situation.
Trespassing can be serious but they are not, as a standard, responded to with firearms in hand or safety devices deactivated hand on the firearm, or similar.
NO calls are to be taken lightly, but, very few calls result in hand on pistol, retention devices deactivated, or drawing.
Backing up isn’t the best, no.
BTW, it used to be, back in the day, common for cops to disable straps on their service revolvers in scenarios to facilitate a faster draw but that is actively discouraged/against SOP now pretty standard across the board…officers are often killed with their own firearm so if the gun is in the holster, the retention devices are to be active/in place, pretty universally. Drawing is drawing, retention devices are defeated while drawing, not while standing and talking to someone (and doing so solo when someone else/second person could come up and make a gun grab)
Source: Police academy training
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There is no way to deactivate a modern retention device, but if a officer has his finger in the right place on the holster the gun can be drawn effortlessly.
The information you quoted is BS.
They are deactivated, they can be deactivated when drawing or with the hand on the gun/holster in preparation to draw. But, again, it’s not going to be a thing, generally, to do any of that for most simple trespass encounters, or most calls/encounters in general.
For example, many duty holsters have a Safariland SLS hood system, the hood can be put into the down position and left there. This is what I mean by deactivating that retention method. With the hood down, it does not do anything to retain the pistol.
The Safariland style thumb button can be pressed down, but unlike the hood if you remove that pressure it goes back to locking the gun in place (whereas the hood has to actively to rotated back in place to work)
There are other systems, such as rocking the rear of the pistol grip down/back before drawing up, where one could rock the pistol back and have it set so that, at that point, a simple straight up draw will release the pistol.
So yes, the retention devices can be “deactivated” that’s basically what you are referring to when you referenced ‘unlock the gun’
The information I quoted I obtained through a combination of having a criminal justice degree, interning with a police department, and literally attending a police academy as a recruit police officer to include weapon retention training in defensive tactics.
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These mean the same thing.
But it’s not a condition to hang out in. It is to be ‘unlocked’ aka retention devices deactivated, generally, only when actually drawing the pistol. Otherwise we want those devices all activated/the gun ‘locked’, as you say…because if the officer doesn’t want the gun drawn and in their hands, we want it securely in their holster and ‘locked up’ because there is at least one gun in every encounter…the one the officer brought. And it needs to stay theirs.
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Get it through your head he wasn’t hanging out, he was approaching a well known suspect.
I am well aware, which is why I didn’t say the officer was hanging out.
What I said was that the “gun unlocked” aka “retention devices deactivated” aka “gun prepped for a straight draw” is not a condition to spend time in. It’s a transition position/condition passed through while drawing.
The gun should be locked/secured in the holster pretty much unless and until it is being actively drawn.
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Which is what got the officer killed, that is not too smart is it?
I disagree that that is what got him killed.
But yes, it is smart. Too many officers in days gone by were killed with their own gun precisely because they were in the habit of unsapping their holster while approaching a situation.
Modern LE training is to keep the gun secured in the holster unless being drawn, and for good reason.
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No, that isn’t what got him killed. A crazy/drug-addled man with a knife did that. As to defense against said crazy/drug-addled man, we can argue what he should/should not have done, but he’s still dead. We can try to learn from this, but as it is not part of our job to remove trespassers, we cannot learn much, except be wary of crazy/drug-addled people, and try to maintain awareness and distance. We surely cannot walk around with our hands on our firearms as we pass people in parking lots, stores, etc.
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