With their latest book, Deadly Force Encounters, Second Edition, Dr. Alexis Artwohl and Loren W. Christensen present the much-anticipated update to their groundbreaking 1997 publication. Still focused on preparing cops “to mentally and physically prepare for and survive a gunfight,” the authors’ second edition is thoughtfully expanded to include civilians who may suddenly find themselves...Read More
It is widely understood that the body can automatically prepare us to respond to threats. Not just actual threats, but those that are perceived or merely expected. Ideally, when this process is engaged, the nervous system is activated and we benefit from heightened senses, faster decision-making, improved mental function, and increased strength. But when this...Read More
Axon, a public safety tech company, promises to radically improve crisis response training by incorporating virtual reality into the classroom. In a pilot program, Axon is using video-game technology that allows officers to virtually experience police interactions through the lens of a crisis-involved subject. Dr. Bill Lewinski, executive director of the Force Science Institute and...Read More
Do We Train to Assure Officer Success… or to “Check the Box?” Part 1 of 4 The average U.S. law enforcement department spends approximately one hundred thousand dollars, from application to academy graduation, preparing officers for the multiple demands they will face on a daily basis while working the street. They must know everything from...Read More
A new use-of-force survey reveals that the use of batons as control or striking weapons is fading out, ground fighting warrants greater emphasis in training, and despite the hyperbolic media coverage of late most arrests are effected with verbal communication alone, with deadly force by police an extreme rarity. These and other findings about the...Read More
A new study clearly documents a “significant and important” trend in federal courts to consider the physiological and psychological impact of stress on officer performance in cases alleging excessive force and inadequate training. “This finding,” says Dr. Bill Lewinski, executive director of the Force Science Institute, “is very encouraging to those of us who have...Read More
Having a policy on critical operational matters is one thing. Training on it is another. And if the two aren’t yoked together, brace for the worst. That caution has recently been emphatically underscored by both a jury verdict and a judge’s ruling in a U.S. District Court in the state of Washington in a case...Read More
The average officer within months of leaving an academy will be able only to describe how a given suspect-control technique should be used but will have “little ability” to actually apply it effectively in “a dynamic encounter with a defiantly resistant subject.” At the rate academy and in-service training is typically delivered, it could take...Read More