Elements That You'll Find In Counter-Assault Training
Posted on: 8 June 2020
If you oversee a law enforcement department, you'll likely organize many different types of training for your officers. For example, your officers will learn how to enter a building in which a suspect is hiding in order to safely apprehend the subject. Another type of training that you should arrange is counter-assault training. As its name suggests, this training teaches your officers how to respond in the event of one or more parties targeting them in an organized assault. Counterassault training can be instrumental in keeping your officers safe on the job. Here are some critical elements that this type of training may include.
Assessing The Assault
In their counter-assault training, your officers will learn how to assess the assault in which they find themselves. For example, an assault could be a lone gunner — perhaps someone who has hidden in a location and then opened fire as the officers approached. Or, the assault could be a highly coordinated attack by a large group of assailants who have taken up multiple strategic positions around your officers. Assessing the type of assault is instrumental in helping your officers decide how to respond to it — and this early step may be instrumental in saving their lives.
Engaging The Suspect(s)
Once your officers have assessed the type of assault under which they find themselves, they can engage the suspect in the appropriate manner. This could include taking up a series of defensive positions and using their long guns against the target. Or, the officers might quickly deem that the best course of action is to split themselves into multiple small teams and move through a designated area to locate and then engage the suspects. In a large building, this scenario could include clearing one room at a time until they reach the suspect.
Identifying A Safe Withdrawal Strategy
Counter-assault training will teach your officers to engage those who have attacked them, but it will also empower them to know when they should withdraw from the area. In some cases, the assailants may have more firepower than your officers — which would mean that a withdrawal strategy would be necessary. In their training, the officers will learn how to quickly look for the safest routes out of the zone of fire so that they can regroup and determine the next course of action. For example, this might involve seeking additional firearms from their patrol cars and then looking to engage the suspects.
To learn more, contact a resource that offers counter-assault training.
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