Thoughts on a few related topics.
1) No one really knows how they will react to a truly life threatening situation until they are in one. Some folks border on panic, or full on panic. Others get very focused and become very intentional in their response.
The more often you are exposed to intensely stressful situations the better you will probably react in the real deal and the more likely you are to respond in a more focused and intentional manner. That's the benefit of regular, repeated, realistic training that creates as much stress and time pressure as possible.
Similarly, it's also why individuals who have survived prior life threatening situations tend to perform better in subsequent situations and first timers.
2) No one "devolves to their training". They devolve to their lowest level of *fully mastered* training. It's why so many officers devolve to poking their service pistol in the general direction of the threat and pulling the trigger as fast as they can. It's what underpins a miss rate of about 80% nationally, and with even the best departments out there still having miss rates of about 50%.
The average police officer isn't a gun person and doesn't shoot more often then they have to to meet minimum qualification standards 2 to 4 times a year.
I recall a training session where we reviewed dash cam footage of a VA state trooper. During a traffic stop the perpetrator exited the vehicle as the trooper approached and began firing. The trooper returned fire but suffered a malfunction. At which point he raised his hand to attract the range officer's attention and looked over hos shoulder for the range officer.. That's devolving to your lowest level of fully mastered training.
It was the last thing he ever did. That dash cam footage made it clear that the VA state police had a serious training problem as that trooper did exactly what he was trained to do, even though it wasn't what the VA state police intended to train.
It safer on the range for an inexperienced officer to get the range officer's attention and assistance in a malfunction, but there is no free lunch. Greater range safety comes at the expense of realism and trains the wrong response in a crisis.
3) I hear "it's useless to learn to use your sights a police officers don't use them". It's true that about 80% of the time officers don't recall using their sights. But there are two opposing explanations for this:
- many experienced drivers are un aware of using their blinkers. It's just something they do every time they turn at an intersection.
If someone trains to bring the handgun up into their line of sight, place the front blade on target and then adjust their grip to align the rear sights before pulling the trigger while maintaining the sight picture and does it long enough to master it, they'll use their sights when shooting fast and under extreme stress. They'll do that because muscle memory in their well developed gripped will keep the rear sights aligned enough for combat accuracy purposes with no conscious thought and the person will also be in the habit of ensuring the front blade is on the target even when focused on the target under stress. But it takes a lot of disciplined practice and repetition to get there, to be able to do it at speed, and have it be their lowest level of fully mastered training.
- More often the officer doesn't recall using their sights because they just didn't use them. That's not a justification to not bother using your sights, it's a indictment against poor and inadequate training of police officers.
4) I got into counseling as a profession after I left law enforcement and I have pretty strong opinions about PTSD. I worked for a time with the VA about 15 years ago and I was not impressed by what I saw. I had a supervisor who was extremely proud of his contributions post 9-11, where he provided services to numerous Twin Towers first responders and by his own description forcing the, to talk about their experiences. Even in 2001 research was pretty clear that survivors of traumatic vents should be encouraged to talk about their experiences and feelings, but not until they are ready to talk.
Not wanting to think or talk about those experiences, especially with someone who does not share the same common bond, is a valid and important psychological defense mechanism. When people are ready to process the events, they'll talk about it. It's counterproductive to try to get them to talk before they are ready and increases the potential for PTSD.
The VA facility where I worked also had a PTSD program and the person in charge operated under the premise that PTSD was a permanent condition that people could learn to function with but would never recover from. As someone who had had PTSD I regarded that as pure non sense. I saw it as taking vets, effectively crippling them, and making them dependent on long term services rather than treating them.
Unfortunately the counseling profession is awash in counselors who got into counseling to deflect or avoid addressing their own issues. A university with an ethical counselor degree program, will weed out students who have their own unresolved issues and who have no business helping other people. But there are a load of programs out there that will just take students money and confer a degree if they pass the academics with no real screening process during the internship segment of the program.
