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| Mama Jane Knows Best |
Disclaimer: This post just covers Saturday & Sunday, aka Final Scenario Weekend (and it was still 7 pages before adding pictures). We completed 18 scenarios in something like 22 hours between the two days. There aren't a lot of visual aids to go with this post and it can be very descriptive because I at least mentioned each of the 18 different scenarios, but some I got as descriptive as I could without giving away too much info. I'll still be doing at least one more post that wraps up my journey out here but just be informed, this one is kind of dry, lengthy, & wordy. If you want to read about how awesome of a law enforcement officer I'll be after fearing I had no business in the industry then please read on, if not, keep your eyes out for my future posts. I promise there will be more visual aids then.
Scenario Weekend: Stop Or I’ll Use Force
this has to do with scenarios & I heard it on the radio today
So the last hurdle left to clear is finally here…Final Scenario Weekend. I was so apprehensive about this weekend because of how our “midterm” scenarios panned out; I walked away from them feeling like I was in way over my head and all of the stuff we were learning would never stick. These scenarios had one major element added to them that the last ones were lacking…firearms.
I woke up just after 6, threw on a bunch of layers, including the first cup I’ve worn since I was 10years old playing Pop Warner football, and actually made some sandwiches to bring for lunch. We were going to the same park that we used for our last scenarios but this time we would be using a giant campground. This pleased me much because the park was close to our house. Security was beefed up for the event, we had to be wanded for weapons, specifically, real ammo that could accidentally be loaded into our firearms. We were told in advance that we’d be shot by “simunation” rounds and I’ve been anxious about this weekend ever since orientation.
We used the same type of guns that we’ve used on the range but would be shooting regular looking bullet casings with paint tips. We were told that the bullets travel at 300ft per second and if they hit your flesh they’d break skin. Great! To familiarize ourselves with these rounds we partnered up, 1 suspect & 1 officer. I partnered with a female so I figured I’d man up and get shot first…you could see the nerves radiating from the suspects’ faces. Then we found out that we’d get some padding to help cushion the hits. There was a vest that reminded me of a lead vest you’d wear at the dentist’s office, a helmet, a throat guard, & gloves. When it got time for Lauren to shoot me I could see how nervous she was to shoot me, but only temporarily. That’s because when she put her gun on target I closed my eyes tight as I could. Hahaha. The shots hit me in the chest, hardly felt them. Phew. We went through a few exercises that incorporated our defensive tactics with firearms and then broke into our 6 groups for the 6 scenarios.
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| One of the simrounds caught Owen's window |
My group consisted of Tex, Brad, Forrest, Man Wheels, & Myself. I threw my nerves out the window and jumped at the chance to go first in the first scenario. It dealt with shots being fired in the park, a dude hunting where he couldn’t; I Regulated (Mount Up) it and got done rather quickly. The biggest challenge of the scenarios was not watching or listening to what the other groups were doing in their scenarios…for obvious reasons. We got through our first station pretty methodically, all 5 of us handled it differently and there was no wrong way to do it. Score.
We needed the “simguns” for the next scenario so the nerves kicked up a notch because the only protective gear we were wearing were safety goggles. Yikes! This scenario was partner based and dealt with serving a warrant…something new for us. I caught a glimpse of the pair that went before us and witnessed them using their training batons on the suspect…great. Brad & I teamed up, he was the contact officer & I was the cover officer. Our spacing and control of the scene was epic. Brad did most of the talking and I ended up providing the muscle. I was in the suspect’s way of getting back into his “house” so he continued to ignore Brad’s commands as he headed toward his car. I ordered him not to go near his car, he ignored me, so I ran up behind him and just as he got to the car door…I wrapped my arms around him, turned him toward the back of the car and face-planted him on the concrete with my landing right on top of him. I then successfully executed a beautiful “sprawl” and set-up to handcuff the suspect and the scenario ended. I helped the suspect up, he was laughing, and when he got to his feet and tried running to the car door again…so I threw one of my old school security holds on him and jokingly told him to stop. My group told me how awesome it was when I put him on the ground and Brad said he wants me having his back every time haha. I heard one group didn’t do so hot on the scenario & the suspect shot one of the officers in his not padded t-shirt…Welt City!
It was lunch time and the cool thing about spending the past 13 weeks with this crew was that we basically threw together an unplanned potluck lunch. We had an hour for lunch, got wanded again, and got rolling with the final 4 scenarios of the day. This next one was hairy and made me nervous. It was another “gun” one. Basically you prevent a guy from getting into his mother-in-law’s house by shooting him…he killed his wife, kid, & shot and wounded a police officer already. Once the guy’s down the instructors look to see how you assess the rest of the scene. I didn’t do a lot of things that I should’ve done initially…seeking cover, checking the vehicle he arrived in for more threats, immediately calling for medical assistance for him...but I worked through it and took my lumps like a man. EVERYBODY got all kinds of lumps for stuff they did & didn’t do on this one. Real confidence shaker but I didn’t screw up too badly so I didn’t stress it.
The next one was a test in how nice you can be to people in order to get done what you need to do. Before today there was only one other time somebody has ever said “Fuck You” to me…in a nonplaying around way…and that guy was a Hell’s Angel who supposedly just got out jail and I witnessed break a guy’s nose at a concert that I was working. This suspect did it and just as I did in the past, I kept my cool, but there was no controlling this dude. He eventually started walking away from me…which I did nothing about at first because I thought it was the end of the scenario…it wasn’t. I caught up to him, “stop or I’ll use force!” He gave me the finger so it was on. I ran up behind him and sacked him like I was James Harrison blindside blitzing Carson Palmer (don’t worry he was wearing one of those firearm safety suits)…right in front of a family of hikers just out enjoying the campground hahaha. He squirmed to get up so I hit him with my training baton; he fell and got up again, hit him again and sprawled on him and worked to the cuffing portion. I thought I did crappy on this one but both he and the monitoring instructor said it was very good. I’ll take it.
Each of these scenarios was dynamic and forced you to adapt to the situation. We went from being worked up about bringing down a murderer to trying to be a nice guy then escalating our level of force…we decided we were going to try the nice guy approach again considering that the next scenario was a partner drill. Considering the odd # of members in my group, we split into a threesome and a twosome and Tex, Brad, & I got the first crack at what turned out to be a circus. I figured we’d have a scenario like this weeks ago, responding to a campsite with multiple occupants and having to control the situation. The instructors said we had the best approach to the scene of the day…and then we lost it. While keeping my eye on a female who was walking around with a branch & a beer bottle…and ignored my orders to drop both, Tex & Brad dealt with another gentleman. I observed a big dude (one of our awesome DUI instructors) sleeping in a tent. I thought to myself “let my partners know that there’s a 3rd person involved in the scene…but I never said it…big mistake. He woke up and charged out of the tent like a bear and had his sights set on Tex & Brad. Cue the circus music. The “bear” got (inert) OC sprayed (which we just found out in the last scenario actually had sugar water in it, after carrying on our duty belts all semester and believing it was empty) by Tex, there was some scuffle with Brad and the other dude and I intercepted the female from assaulting Tex with the stick. She was in a t-shirt and yoga pants and there was nothing but rocks throughout the campground…so I didn’t want to slam her on the ground for scenario’s sake. I articulated that I threw her on the ground but she kept resisting. “Don’t make me throw you on the ground for real, just go.” She didn’t comply…so down she went. I got the branch and beer bottle away from her, cuffed her, searched her, and kneeled on her. Brad’s dude got away so that left all 110lbs of Tex left to scuffle with a guy who was bigger than me. Since Brad’s dude got away, he took himself out of the scenario and just watched Tex wrestle with the bear until Tex said something to him. I articulated that I was putting the female in our patrol car so I could help the boys with the big guy. They were doing all sorts of weird stuff to him. I came over and applied the hold they were looking for us to apply in order to end the scenario, the suspect said ok and I figured we were done. Unsure of why we weren’t done, the three of us got him to the ground. Tex was apparently trying to search him and was failing horribly. We dog piled him for the search, he kept trying to grab at us with his cuffed hands…which was a signal for us to apply the same hold that I applied when he was standing…instead Tex slaps his hands and tries to continue his search. This went on for a while then they mercifully ended the scenario. There was a lot that frustrated me about the scenario but none more than the fact that I ended it earlier and stopped when I heard an instructor say okay. We got a lot of criticism on that one. One more scenario left.
The last one dealt with taking artifacts out of the park…big No No. Tex & I partnered up and dominated the entire scene. We were the second to last pair to go and they said we were the first pair of the day to approach the scene correctly. We worked through the whole scenario almost flawlessly. They had nothing but good things to say about us…then we got to watch the other 3 go at the same time. The instructor we had yesterday for the D-Tac refresher was one of the suspects in this one and he cracked me up. He was hitting on Stan and seeing his reaction was priceless. While their scenario was going on I saw a giant eared squirrel. It looked almost like a rabbit-squirrel.
We get debriefed after each scenario and some of the instructors would ask us one lesson we learned through doing them…very very awesome idea. These instructors were phenomenal and I steered away from my normally quiet self and asked all of them a bunch of questions. I made sure to ask my defensive tactic instructor to show me a better way to frisk…that will come back again tomorrow. We met up as a class and got some more feedback and we were on our way. I was feeling good about the way the day went. When we got home I had a lot of energy and the weather was beautiful out so I decided I was going to get changed and go for a walk…maybe do some PT exercises. I lost nearly all of my steam by the time I got changed. I grabbed my iPod & forced myself get out of the house.
I walked to Bushmaster Park, it was looking nice and there were quite a few people there. I walked around on the path and eventually sat on a park bench and just watched everything going on around me. I eventually headed home, taking the long way back, and that’s when I started thinking, “I haven’t seen any stray dogs running around here in awhile. Next time I do I’m going to check for a tag and see if I can return them” I soon would be able to practice what I was thinking about. I went out to the grocery store about an hour later and I looked up my road to see 3 dogs roaming my street in a perfect in-step pack formation. I identified two of them as German Shepherds but I couldn’t quite make out what the third and biggest one was. I said screw it and followed them around the neighborhood until I could get to safe spot to try to check them out. They headed down the next street, I got about 15 feet from them…tried whistling for them but they ignored me, turned around, and headed for the next street. So I turned around and headed to the next street. By the time I got there they repeated the same pattern but this time I stopped, whistled, and the smaller Shepherd with an all black face stopped and looked at me, the biggest dog turned out to be a Siberian Husky, she ran around my car but within seconds they were on to the next road. By the time I turned around and headed for the next road they were out of sight. So bizarre. The rest of the night was pretty tame compared to that haha. I did manage to watch Devil and I rather enjoyed it. (Welcome back M. Night)
Scenario Weekend: I’ve Seen Better
It’s funny the things you can do when you really have to, but I’ll get into more detail about that later. Today was the last day of the big “scary” scenarios and I couldn’t wait to get into them after the big confidence boost I got from yesterday’s exercises. The location of today’s scenarios changed to a military base and we were warned that there’d be less sun and a lot more wind…boy they weren’t kidding; I was stripping off my sweatshirt before it was my turn on our very first scenario…at 8am. We got new groups today, EJP, Lewkis, Arkansas, LDC, & I were set to get into it today and I howled that we were the Dream Team when were assigned to our first station…a vehicle stop.
This one of the many elements of law enforcement that has always made me nervous to get into and Arkansas & LDC made sure I was the contact officer right off the bat. We’ve never actually pulled somebody over during our training so this should’ve been very entertaining. We witness two guys drive past us, swerving all over the road, and holding a map up in front of their faces. We’re not supposed to stop them on a curve and were supposed to keep them away from other cars. Well practically the entire road was a curve and when it wasn’t, there were a bunch of military vehicles parked in the road. Luckily the instructors pulled into a parking lot, unfortunately I didn’t get the information I needed to get out over the radio before they stopped and jumped out of the car then began asking us directions…my partners sprung into action while I resolved that issue. I had the rules of the driving track embedded in my brain so when I stopped our truck, I turned off the lights & then the truck…first time jitters. I took control of the scene and separated the driver & passenger. I talked with the driver, LDC the passenger, & Arkansas had our backs. The scenario eventually led to me taking the driver through the DUI FSTs…right in front of the instructor who showed them to us…he was clear to go with some fake directions to where they were trying to go and a little lecture.
As soon as I got through that scenario I realized that I can actually do this job. My belief in doing so was getting clearer & clearer as the semester went on but it was at this point that I was no longer afraid of going forward with these scenarios and began actually really looking forward to an opportunity to work in the law enforcement field. The following scenario was definitely the loudest one and one of the role players was the guy with the shovel from the previous day, so my guard was up with him today. I had the same partners & we responded to a noise disturbance in a camp ground. The two actors were “drunk”, had music blasting, and were talking really loud by an open driver side door. LDC opted to be the contact officer but our approach landed me in the role because I saw them playing with a handgun…at which point I drew my “redgun”, dropped to a knee, and ordered them to put down the gun and move to the back of their pickup truck. Our 360 approach again was flawless, the ladies handled the suspects and I searched the vehicle. The first thing I saw was a prop shotgun on the dashboard but I didn’t think much of it because they weren’t getting near the cab of that truck again…eventually controlled it but should’ve done it as soon as I saw it. When I controlled the shotgun, shovel guy hollered, “ain’t that the nicest gun you ever seen?” (or something like that). I responded, “I’ve seen better.” My group cracked up and I was relieved that I finally let one of those out. I was always too nervous to put my Jeff Ward Spin on these scenarios, but those three words changed my entire mindset in going forward with the rest of the day and how I plan to go forward from here. We worked through the scene nicely, shovel guy broke character for a second to reinforce a proper way to frisk in me, and we were done with them.
EJP & I tag teamed a car that was “suspiciously” parked on the side of a park road and was seen sleeping. I took the cover officer role this time and approached the vehicle on the passenger side. EJP dealt with the introduction and everything but I once again found myself in more of a contact role..doing what I have to do. While EJP ran his info back in the patrol car, I controlled the suspect verbally, talked to dispatch, had the suspect step out of the vehicle and onto the side of the road and advising him to watch his footing (which was a huge deal and my instructors loved) and completed a flawless search (right in front of the D-Tac instructor we had the past few days, the same guy who showed me how to do it yesterday) and I explained to the suspect what I was doing as I was doing it and the instructors loved that. In our feedback session, all 3 of the instructors said I was “OUTSTANDING!!!” We moved onto a hunting scenario right after that and we were informed that 1 of us would be going solo…that person was me. I happened to catch other students doing all kinds of patdowns, searches, and even cuffing…and there were 2 hunters in this case. Time to shine.
The story was that they were parked in NPS land and hunting in Forest Service land…which is legal and had I not asked before the scenario, I would never have known. I caught up with the hunters on their way back to their car. While they were a good distance away, I verbalized how I wanted them to show me that their guns were empty, the same way we were taught at the range (ironically, one of our range instructors was facilitating this scene). When I saw the weapons were clear, I waved them on to continue on their way to their car, stopping them in the road to ID them. I made small talk with them and sent them on their way. The instructors said I was the “best one yet” at that scenario. No need to frisk a couple of hunters. The point of the scenario was to not treat all of your contacts like criminals. The next scenario dealt with a domestic dispute of sorts. LDC & I were great at keeping a visual on each other while we separated the parties but I was told I should’ve taken away the broom the guy was holding much sooner than I did. One more morning scenario to go.
We were getting set to take on our next scene and then some sort of badness came over Arkansas. She ran to the bathroom and barfed. This started a pattern of going first in the scenarios & then leaving to vomit the rest of the day. She was such a trooper, I was so proud. Jacob (Lewkis) & I finally partnered up and once again I started off as cover but soon turned into contact officer. Our suspect was a guy that seemed suspicious to a visitor. We arrived & he appeared to be “on” something. I saw him fidgeting with his blanket when he stood up to talk to us but I wasn’t sure how to go about looking under the blanket. We eventually got to it after I did an excellent job at building rapport with him. Jacob found the drugs which gave me the green light to cuff and thoroughly search him. I knew I had to get it right because, for the 4th time today, I’d be performing a skill on or in front of one of the instructors that taught it to me. I found more drugs and we arrested him. I was told I did a good job but I talked too fast while searching him and giving him commands. LUNCH TIME! We preordered Subway and then jumped back into the fray.
There were 2 scenarios that involved the less-than-lethal rounds in the afternoon…and we got both of them right off the bat. The first one was my least favorite scenario of the weekend. It involved responding to a fight with weapons involved and deciding whether or not to shoot. I did get to throw somebody on the ground so that was cool but since I was sort of the odd man out and one of my group mates had to double up and be my partner…I got grilled in front of the facilitator, the 3 role players, my group mates, & 2 program spectators. I was right in what I did but it was just a dumb scenario. Oh yeah, I was prompted to call for medical assistance but ID’d the wrong type of injury because the guy that needed it and another guy were wearing the same looking “paint bulletproof” suits. Just dumb. The next scenario required me to face one of my biggest fears…getting whacked by multiple paintballs.
This was a cover course scenario…how to shoot from behind cover using the cover properly. This was no fun for me. We had to wear those suffocating helmets, run from cover to cover, shoot at a paintball gun wielding suspect from behind the cover, and try not to get hit. Lots of anxiety going on here for me. The gun we were using was a piece of crap; every time I shot I had to re-rack the slide so it could fire again. When I ran to cover I either dove or slid on these jagged rocks so that I’d be covered; and that’s what the title of this section is all about. I’m facing one of my fears with the whole paintball thing, couldn’t breathe with that helmet on, and here I was sprinting and diving behind crappy wooden cover so that I wouldn’t be shot. I didn’t use the cover so well because I got hit 4-5 times…once right in my shooting hand, once in the front of each shoulder, and at least once smack dab in the forehead. I hit the suspect 4 times too but it was so hard to see with that helmet on. When the scenario was deemed over, I ripped the helmet off my head; gasping for air and extremely pissed about the whole thing. I felt like I wasn’t even hitting the guy and I essentially died.
My frustration didn’t hinder my confidence and soon I was fighting to be the contact officer. Low and behold, the next instructor picked me to be the first contact officer in the next scenario…which was more of a teaching scenario. He showed us a different approach to high-risk vehicle stops and sent us on our way. The next scenario tested how well we retain and analyze pre-shift briefing material but of course we didn’t know that going into it. I was contact officer again and responded to a disabled vehicle call. I think what threw me off was that this scenario was in the same place as the hunting scenario that I did so well in because I went about it the same way. At one point the driver gets out of the car and I notice what look like weapon cases, my partner saw them too but neither of us were sure how to articulate going about being able to see them, so we let the car leave once it started again and I basically announced that the scenario was over and I knew that we messed up something. The cases actually ended up being stolen property that we were told about in our briefing but the fact that the car was really a law enforcement vehicle and the way the shadow hit them, they looked like they could’ve been some fancy law enforcement center console. That was aggravating. Only 2 more scenarios left and our lives get a whole lot easier.
LDC opted to be the contact officer and we responded to a call of an open window of a federal building at which nobody is supposed to be because it’s the weekend. LDC, EJP, & I arrive on scene and see a guy standing outside the window with a crowbar and is having stuff thrown at the window to him which he tries to take to his “car”. This scene went a little sloppy for us but I got very vocal with the suspects while spotting my partners, used solid communication with them throughout the scene, and was even able to explain some things to one of them that they didn’t quite understand…which in turn proved to myself that even I understood this stuff. There was one scenario left and even the instructors let it show that they were happy it was the last one. We responded to a call about dudes fighting over a campground and just when it seemed that one of them was going to be thrown out, he jokingly broke character, pulled out his badge, and said that he was working undercover for an immigration case. We weren’t sure if it was for real or part of the scene but it was hysterical and the laughter basically ended scenario weekend.
I wish we did more scenarios throughout the year. At times we were rushed to conclude them and there could’ve been a whole lot more that we could’ve gotten out of them. I was scared crapless of them back for our midterm but by the middle of the last day I wanted to take on all of the responsibilities and by the end of the last day I felt like I could handle any law enforcement issue that comes my way. I still have a whole lot more to learn but I know I can do it and it took these final scenarios piecing everything we’ve covered all semester together for me to realize that. It just goes to show you that you shouldn’t be afraid of anything in this life. Even if you feel like you can’t do something, when you’re literally forced to do it..you find yourself excelling at it and learn that there was never anything to fear in the first place.
We got to have some fun after cleaning up scenes. Our DUI instructor brought his K-9, Victor, out to play and this dog is awesome! I know when to show dogs respect and all of that. The dog that this instructor had yesterday…I wouldn’t ever dream of going anywhere near…but Victor was at our midterm scenarios and although none of the students really touched him, I wanted to play with him so bad. Well on Sunday, most of the students gathered around Victor and he loved it. He reminded me of Casey (my golden retriever). He would melt onto you and just hope that you pet him. He’d mash his body into head first and not leave until he targeted somebody else to pet him. He was so loving, happy, & playful that you’d never think he was police dog. Then somebody requested bite suit demonstration…and both of our DUI instructors obliged. I told you these guys were the coolest back when we first had them in class. Victor looked like he was just a regular dog playing but there was a very noticeable change in his eyes once he saw the instructor in his bite suit. They gave us a brief demonstration of the training they normally do for their K-9s and it was just incredible how Victor goes from playful, to killer attack beast, to tame and playful with just the application of a few Dutch words (he’s a Belgian Malinois I Think). After the demonstration we got our final feedbacks, said our final thank you’s, and wished Kathy well because this was her last scenario weekend at NAU EVER!
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| This is Victor, he's super awesome |
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| Yes he's chewing on an ASP baton. Have you ever felt one of those? Yeah this dog is a total badass |
I was beat when I got home and very upset about some things going on in Jeffville. I think I just laid around and I finished the first season of Friday Night Lights but at one point Fiona ran away and we took turns searching for her. She eventually made it back home which was pretty impressive considering she’s an indoor only cat. Bed time for me. Last PT class tomorrow.
Goodnight
MOUNT UP!!!
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