Winning Mind Training

  • Home
  • About
    • About Winning Mind
    • Testimonials
  • Blog
  • Courses Listing / Calendar
    • Training Schedule
    • Course Descriptions
      • Dare to Be Great: Strategies for Creating a Culture of Leading
      • Dare To Be Great Leadership 2.0: Continuing the Journey of Building a Culture of Leading, Learning and Excellence
      • Dare To Be Great Leadership: Strategies to Help Frontline Leaders Build and Sustain a Culture of Leading, Learning and Excellence
      • Lessons From Life’s Most Powerful Question
      • Excellence In Training
      • Break Down the Silos and Grow Your Tribe of Trainers and Leaders
      • Performance Enhancement Imagery
      • Ground Fighting and A.C.E. Edged Weapons Defense Instructor Course
      • PPCT Threat Pattern Recognition Use of Force Instructor Course
  • Resources
  • Contact Us

October 6, 2009 By Brian Willis

CEW Training – Part 4

Before we leave the topic of CEWs I need to address two more training gaps / unintended consequences I have observed in CEW training:

 

  1. The failure to expose officers to drive stuns.
  2. The failure to train weapon retention and disarming with CEWs.

 

Lets start with exposure to drive stuns. Too often the only expose officers observe or experience in training occurs with proper probe deployment to the torso and results in full body lockup. Combine this with the number of times officers have watched someone being rendered unconscious with a drive stun on television and the movies and the result is that some officers are conditioned to believe a drive stun will have the same full body lockup effect as proper probe deployment to the torso.

Across North America we are now seeing officers being disarmed of the CEWs during fights with subjects and the CEW being turned on the officer. What seriously concerns me is that the current training may result in some officers being conditioned to lockup when they are exposed to a CEW attack at contact range. These up close and personal attacks can result from a subject disarming the officer of their CEW or from the subject producing their own CEW and using it on an officer. In my mind this begs the question “Have officers ever been exposed to a drive stun application of a CEW?” Having had this experience they understand that a drive stun exposure is more of an annoyance than anything and that a drive stun does not have the same disabling effect as proper probe deployment to the torso.

This leads me to my next point. Are you training officers in CEW retention and disarming as part of your overall CEW program? In the last year we have seen a number of incidents in North America where officers have been disarmed of their CEWs during violent encounters and the subjects have turned the CEW on the officer. It is not enough to assume that when an officer is facing this situation in the field that the weapon disarming training they received as part of their control tactics program will kick in. Officers need to that these attacks are happening with increased frequency and therefore they need to be prepared for it to happen to them. When it does happen to them they may have to defeat the attack and disarm the subject of the CEW while they are being exposed to the current. They also need to have considered other force options for defeating the attack and the issue of follow up once the initial attack has been defeated.

If your officers are carrying CEWs they must also be trained in retention techniques for that weapon and the carry system they use. This ideally should be an adaptation of the weapon retention technique they are trained in regarding their firearms to ensure consistency in principles. The dynamics however will be different depending on where they carry the CEW. For agencies carrying the CEW on the duty belt on the opposite side of the body from the firearm the retention techniques should almost be a mirror image of gun retention. For those who carry the CEW in a drop holster there will need to be some modifications.

I would challenge you to step back and look at your CEW program. Ask yourself what gaps exist in your training and what potentially unintended consequences of well intentioned training exist.

Take care.
Brian Willis

Filed Under: Blog

Subscribe To Our Blog

Sign up to the Winning Mind Training blog to receive new articles, tips and posts directly to your email inbox.

Excellence In Training Blog

  • What if you switched to a PTCM model? May 10, 2022
  • The purpose of using videos in training.  April 26, 2022
  • Does your training focus on education or learning?  April 19, 2022
  • Are you preparing your people for the complexities of today’s world? April 12, 2022
  • Can you afford to exclude good candidates simply because they do not have a piece of paper? March 29, 2022

Contact Winning Mind Training

Address:
246 Stewart Green S.W., Suite #2486
Calgary AB. Canada. T3H 3C8

Phone: 403-279-5954

Email: winningmind@mac.com

Connect With Us

  • Email
  • LinkedIn
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Winning Mind Training is a proud member of the Calgary Chamber of Commerce. To get more information and to find out how you can become a member of the Chamber of Commerce go to www.calgarychamber.com

Events

  • Performance Enhancement Imagery Workshop - Eugene, OR
    • Tuesday, May 17, 2022 - Thursday, May 19, 2022
  • Dare To Be Great Leadership: Strategies to Help Frontline Leaders Build and Sustain a Culture of Leading, Learning and Excellence - Chesterfield, VA
    • Monday, May 23, 2022 - Tuesday, May 24, 2022
  • Excellence in Training Course - Chesterfield, VA
    • Wednesday, May 25, 2022 - Friday, May 27, 2022

Copyright © 2022 · Winning Mind Training