The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Gunset Training Group or its affiliates.
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Authors note: I decided to post this after watching this video and finding this old article as I was going through some old computer files the other day. I wrote this in 2002 – I had about 3 years street experience under my belt. It was the first article I submitted for publication (unsuccessfully). A couple of things to keep in mind – Simunitions were still relatively new, as were the principles of Reality Based Training (Training at the Speed of life was not published until 2 years later). I have not edited the article since 2002, so forgive the crappy writing.
I had to chuckle to myself as I watched the cop in my rearview mirror. This poor guy has no idea how bad his day just got. I keep watching him as he walks up to my car. He pauses for a moment at the rear of my car and then continues to walk up the driver’s side. PERFECT. Just where I want him. He’s at the driver’s side back door now. One more step. NOW. I look over my left shoulder as I bring my Glock 17 up. The gun goes out the window and I open fire. I get 5 or 6 shots off before he even knows what hit him. I open the door with my left hand and bail out of the car. The cop is just now reacting. As I bring my gun up to get a new sight picture, I can see I’ve already hit him 4 or 5 times. He’s retreating towards his vehicle and just now getting his gun out. I get a new sight picture…front sight on center mass…lead him just a little and pull the trigger. I see that I’m on target and I keep firing. The cop turns and starts to shoot back. I feel a round as it grazes my left arm. I’m not done yet, cop. The slide locks back on my Glock. I dump the empty mag as I pull another one out of my pocket. I slam the new one home and drop the slide. I’m coming for you, cop. I start walking towards the cop car. Where’d he go? There he is. PERFECT. I caught him while he’s reloading. As I bring my Glock up, I have to laugh. This poor bastard never had a chance.
This incident occurred in the late spring of 2002. Fortunately for everyone involved, the Glocks that we were using were Glock 17T 9x19mm FX Simunition pistols. My friend Ed is a firearms instructor for a neighboring police department. Ed had asked some friends of mine and I to play the role of a bad guy for his department’s next firearms training session. When Ed told me what he had in mind, I jumped at the chance. I’m glad I did. It was some of the best training I’ve ever had. If you are not familiar with Simunitions, check out their website at http://www.simunitions.com. Simunitions is simply the best when it comes to real life firearms training for law enforcement. It does not get any more realistic.
Now, back to tactics. For 5 days, I played the bad guy for Ed’s department. I learned so much from playing a bad guy and watching other police officer’s actions/reactions, it was unbelievable. I would encourage anyone that has the opportunity to play the bad guy during a training session to do so. This particular training session dealt with traffic stops. There were 3 different traffic stop scenarios that each officer went through. In the first scenario, I would let the officer approach my car. When they got close to my window, I would open fire. The second scenario did not involve any gunfire (the participating officers did not know this). The scenario was a traffic stop on a known criminal with an outstanding warrant. The focus of the scenario was handcuffing techniques, pat-downs and officer safety. The last scenario was a worst case scenario. As soon as the officer exited his car and took a step forward, I would exit my car and charge the officer, firing my Glock on the run.
SCENARIO ONE – During the first scenario, I saw first and foremost that driver’s side approaches will get you killed. Probably 95% of the officers made driver side approaches. I was able to shoot every single one of them before they could get their guns out of their holsters. I don’t understand why police officers still use this technique. The only officers I failed to hit with my first shots made passenger side approaches. That doesn’t mean that passenger side approaches are perfect. They aren’t. I was able to hit a few officers who made passenger side approaches, but the hits were right where the shock plate of their vests would have been. They would’ve been fine. It was interesting to watch the different reactions to this scenario. The worst reaction I saw was an officer who went to “condition black” and just stood there. A majority of the other officers reacted well. They went for cover/distance separation, drawing their weapons on the run. The absolute best reaction that I saw was from a patrol sergeant who was getting ready to retire. My friend Ed told me to take it easy on him (it had just rained and we were using a grass field and they didn’t want him re-injuring his knee by slipping on the wet grass). Right. So this Sgt. does a passenger side approach. As soon as he got to the passenger side rear door, I turned and shot him twice through the open window. I could see that I hit him center mass with both shots. I opened the driver’s door and turned to bail out of the car. As I put my left foot on the ground, I’m stunned by 2 Simunitions rounds that hit me in the back of the head. I fall to the ground, thinking, “What the hell just happened?” That Sgt. did everything right. He reacted immediately. He didn’t panic. He didn’t let me exit the vehicle and gain the initiative. He dropped me in my tracks. Take it easy on him. Right. Sure, Ed.
SCENARIO TWO –
The object of the second scenario was to make sure that the officers were not getting lazy or complacent in their handcuffing and search incident to arrest techniques. I own a Seecamp .32ACP that I carry in my pocket. I concealed the Seecamp on my person and waited to see who could find it. Many of the officers didn’t. The first couple of days I hid the Seecamp in my Danner Ft. Lewis boots. The thick leather of the boots concealed the Seecamp well. The last 3 days I used an old badge wallet to conceal the Seecamp. I cut most of the guts out of the wallet and sandwiched the Seecamp down inside of it.
After getting shot in the first scenario, some of the officers ordered me out of the car at gunpoint, proned me out on the ground and handcuffed me. Others just got me out of the car and took me into custody. Most (not all) of them handcuffed me. Most of them patted me down in some manner. If the officer found the Seecamp during the pat down, the scenario was over. If they didn’t, the scenario continued and I was placed in the back of their patrol car. While the officer was speaking with Ed and the other instructors, I would retrieve the Seecamp and wait for them to open the car door. When they did, I’d point the Seecamp at them and say “bang”. I have to admit that I was guilty of not always performing thorough pat downs. Not any longer. After you handcuff the bad guy, go through all his pockets. Pull everything out and look at it. It only takes a minute.
SCENARIO THREE – For me, the last scenario was the best (or worst, depending on who you are). I had borrowed a short barreled Remington 870 from my department and a 12 ga. Simunitions kit from another department. I loved seeing the reaction on the officers’ faces when I came out of my car with that shotgun (I could see their eyes get big, even behind the protective masks we wore). There were a lot of different reactions to that scenario. As a bad guy, I learned that if the officer let me keep the initiative, I would usually come out on top. If the officer reacted aggressively and took the initiative away from me, I became the hunted instead of the hunter. Another thing I learned is the importance of distance. I saw many officers pull their patrol car up within 1 car length of my car. I was out of the car and on them in no time. Keep a good reactionary gap between the cars.
I have to hand it to Ed, Ron and Jeff. They put together a great training session. I was honored to take part in it. During the training session, the officers were told that they were not allowed to watch the scenario before they were involved in it. This kept the element of surprise intact. After they had participated in the scenario, the officers were allowed to watch the other officers in their group go through the scenario. Ed caught one of his co-workers watching a scenario before he was supposed to. Ed’s solution to this was simple: he changed the scenario for that officer. Unfortunately for the officer in question, he chose to get a sneak peak of the last scenario. When he came out for the last scenario, Ed got in the car with me. So instead of facing one bad guy that was charging him and shooting at him, this officer had to face 2 bad guys. Needless to say, it was a painful experience for him.
After each group of officers had gone through all three scenarios, we would get together and do a critique of each scenario. I would tell them what I observed from a bad guy’s point of view and make some suggestions on changing the tactic in question.
After playing a bad guy for a week, I re-evaluated and changed some of my own tactics. If you think your tactics are good, try being a bad guy and see if your tactics measure up.
End note: I worked the street, off and on, until 2022 and I used what I learned that week for 20 years. I made hundreds of stops in that time and probably did not make more than ten driver’s side approaches. I think, for the most part, this article has stood the test of time. Having said that, I would like to point out a couple of things. First, tinted windows were not legal in Ohio until a couple of years after I wrote this. Heavy window tint may dictate different tactics. Second, this week really was the springboard for me becoming a trainer. Knowing what I know now, I would have suggested organizing the scenarios a little bit differently and taken different safety precautions.
