Are You Ready For Work?

By Madison Police Officer Eric Anderson

Officer Eric Anderson

Are you ready for work? In the dwindling hours of your days off and at the start of each workday, you’ve probably heard this question asked of you by your partner, your spouse, your significant other, or even the person in the mirror. On the surface this probably means: Have you packed your lunch? Is your uniform ready? Do you have all your gear? But the question goes much deeper.

Ask yourself: How ready am I? The question goes past the day-to-day readiness for duty and goes much further into preparation for duty. Ask yourself: How prepared am I to assume my duties as a police officer? Let’s take a look at some areas of preparation that are vital for the police function. We’ll ask the questions: Am I prepared Legally, Physically, Tactically, Emotionally and Mentally?

Am I Prepared Legally?

In order to do your job effectively, it is important that you make sound legal decisions. Often these decisions must be made quickly, and may be related to a use of force or an immediate tactical decision. A lack of sufficient legal knowledge can affect your decision-making greatly and can cause dangerous delays in your tactical thought process. For example, if subconsciously you are second-guessing your decision to arrest or control a subject based on a policy or legal issue, chances are you may not use the appropriate level of force or intensity to take this person into custody when they resist.

Your law enforcement training and experience has placed various “packets” of information into your subconscious mind for unconscious retrieval when needed. Working independently, the subconscious mind can process and retrieve these packets with extreme efficiency. However, if your conscious mind is struggling with policy and legal questions during a confrontation or tactical process, the actions of the subconscious mind will be hindered. This hindrance may cause dangerous hesitation and may result in an ineffective or inappropriate use of force.

Use of force is not the only concern we have when it comes to making legal decisions. Arrest decisions, charging decisions and on-scene investigations can all be affected by a poor legal decision at the scene. The difference here is that you often have time to consult with a supervisor, detective or district attorney to guide you in your decision-making process.

Also, think now about the day when you may have to have your legal ducks in a row should you be involved in an investigation. Prepare yourself legally by researching Garrity issues and your related responsibilities. Do you have an attorney? Who would you call if you found yourself the subject of an investigation?

Prepare Yourself Legally.

1. Review legal updates. Legal updates contain the latest legal decisions regarding law enforcement matters.
   
2. Read professional journals and publications. Do the research. Law enforcement is in a constant state of change. Books and magazines authored by experts in our field can shed light on the questions you may have.
   
3. Consult legal professionals within your state or agency. Seek out those in your agency or around your state that have a legal background and can answer your questions about the law and its complexities.
   
4. Conduct an incident rehearsal and do some research on a case involving a legal issue you may be unsure of. Do an incident rehearsal, but throw a legal curve ball to yourself. If you can’t come up with an answer immediately, do some research and answer your own question. The key is that you go through the legal research and investigation before it happens to you on the street.
   
5. Review your policy, statute book and related training manuals. A lot of the answers to your questions are right there in black and white. Read and be familiar with the policy and procedures of your organization, as well as the training manuals that got you to where you are today.
   
6. Review Garrity. Prepare yourself in advance for the day you may be questioned as part of an investigation.

Am I Prepared Physically?

There’s no doubt about it; law enforcement is a very physically demanding profession that requires constant preparation and refinement of skills. The many physical components to this job require that you keep your skills honed to a fine edge through practice and repetition. It is equally important that you practice a healthy lifestyle to counteract the negative influences the job may have on you physically. Shift work, poor diet and extreme fluctuation in heart rate and chemical levels in the body are some examples of negative effects that have both short and long-term implications.

As with any physical task, practice makes perfect. Those “packets” of information containing physical skills that are placed in the subconscious become reflexive after three to five thousand repetitions. Once you’ve mastered the basics and have become reflexive in your response, add an element of stress to the scenario. Scenarios involving an element of stress will increase in value due to the emotional attachment that the brain places on them.

The goal is to place enough repetitions and information in the subconscious that we need not think consciously while under stress. As a matter of fact, during moments of extremely high levels of stress, your brain will shift from the forebrain to the midbrain and function fully on subconscious and innate responses.

Prepare Yourself Physically.

1. Practice your defensive tactics skills. DAAT is a perishable skill that we must maintain through routine practice. Shadow training, partner training and scenario training are all examples of how we can practice our DAAT skills. Review your DAAT manual from time to time as a refresher. It will not only assist you in keeping your skills fresh, but it will also provide important information on incident response and use of force reporting. Be sure to include your “professional communications” skills in your practice routine. Practicing what you’re going to say – and what you’re not going to say - is extremely important during use of force training.

2. Practice your firearms skills. Firearms skills also need to be practiced on a routine basis. It’s the first few rounds out of the holster or from the ready position that are the most important. We train and practice for that moment in time when we may have to use our firearm in defense of ourselves or another person. Think beyond minimally passing the qualification course and set your goal on firearms proficiency in a realistic environment. Recall your last qualification course – were you satisfied with the speed and placement of your first few rounds? Dry fire is free and works to create muscle memory. Emphasize speed, accuracy and trigger control through dry fire practice. When it comes to live fire, think quality versus quantity. Two hundred rounds of rapidly fired practice ammo cannot compare to 50 well-placed, well-practiced rounds delivered from various speeds, positions and distances at varying targets.
   
   CAUTION: When dry-firing your weapon, you must adhere to all basic firearms safety rules. Ensure that you’ve unloaded your weapon completely, then check and re-check the unloaded status. Remove all ammunition from the training area. Ensure that you position yourself in front of a substantial backstop (cinder block, brick, concrete wall) and do all dry firing while pointing your weapon at the backstop. If you are doing reloading exercises, you must ensure that all of your magazines are completely empty.

3. Establish a physical fitness regimen. Exercise does not perform itself. Everyone is busy, and many distractions arise in our lives. We all know the physical, emotional and mental benefits of physical exercise. The key issues are what to do and how to do it. There are several principles to keep in mind. The first rule is simple: doing something is better than nothing. If you have only 15 minutes, do 15 minutes. Frequency is also important, both to realize gains and reduce chance of injury while exercising; aim for three days a week minimum (but see rule one; if you get in only two sessions, two is better than none). Duration is another consideration; 30 minutes or more per session (but see rule one). Finally, there is intensity (how hard to push it). The level of intensity is based on your level of fitness and goals, but, remember, if you are starting a new routine, recovering from injury, or getting back into exercise, consider lower intensity (lighter weights, fewer repetitions, more rest time, slower pace, and etc.). Regular exercise will improve job performance — for the fight or foot chase — but with busy lives, limited time, and the rigors of law enforcement work, we cannot focus merely on one area, such as running or power lifting. We must consider aerobic and anaerobic capacity, strength and speed, endurance and flexibility. With that in mind, consider circuit training — moving from one exercise to another with little or no rest (or doing jumping jacks or jogging in between exercises). In 30 minutes, a thoughtful circuit-training program can be performed requiring little or no equipment, which develops strength, endurance, aerobic and anaerobic capacity. Add some stretching and core training and your workout is complete. Core training is particularly important for law enforcement, as it will protect our backs from our duty belts, DAAT, driving for hours, and other police-related issues. Contributed by Madison Police Officer Jason Freedman.

4. Eat healthy. A healthy, well-balanced diet will provide your body with the necessary fuel to keep it running. Focus on eating five to six small meals a day; this will help maintain blood sugar (i.e., energy) levels. Avoid dieting scams or fads; consider adopting habits that you can maintain for a lifetime. Remember that eating mostly the right thing(s) most of the time is sufficient to improve our health. Fruits and vegetables, foods low in sugars and bad fats (trans-fats or hydrogenated oils), and whole grains should be the foundation of our eating habits. Contributed by Madison Police Officer Jason Freedman.

5. Get adequate sleep. Nothing will destroy your physical and mental alertness more than lack of sleep. It’s tough in our line of work, but we must balance our responsibilities and allow for and schedule time for uninterrupted sleep. If you put yourself into a sleep deficit, sooner or later your body will cash in on what you owe it. Shift work, unanticipated interruptions in sleep and voluntary overtime and off-duty jobs can all contribute to your sleep deficit. Step back and take an assessment of your lifestyle. Are you burning the candle on both ends? What changes can you make to relieve some of the stress and responsibility? Lack of sleep is not only a health and wellness issue; it is also an officer-safety issue. A tired officer may experience slower reaction time, poor decision-making or lack of motivation. Some possible results could be officer/subject/citizen injury, poor productivity, traffic crashes or on/off duty accidents.

6. Get health checkups. See your doctor and get a regular checkup. We want to make sure that we’re maintaining our health as we proceed through our law enforcement career. More importantly, we want to be healthy enough to enjoy the day when we retire the badge and enjoy the next chapter of our life. Many serious illnesses can be detected early enough for treatment if we take the time for an annual health check. Consult with your health care professional for checkups that are appropriate for age, race, gender and family history.

Am I Prepared Tactically?

Tactical thinking and planning takes practice and requires some forethought in order to be effective. Keep your tactical skills sharp by reviewing the basics from time to time and practice those skills individually and with those you work with on a daily basis. Tactics, for the most part, is a team activity and your team needs to get together now and then to go over the basic plan. It would be impossible for us to anticipate and train for all situations imaginable, but there are some bright line tactical rules that should be practiced and adhered to.

As with any of our skills, the more we practice them, the more readily retrievable they are when we need them. Tactics is no exception. Practice your tactical response during live-training scenarios, or create your own mental scenario and experience it through an incident-rehearsal session. Live scenarios need not be elaborately orchestrated or involve a cast of thousands. A handful of officers with a few moments of spare time can put together short, meaningful scenario-based training. The key is actually getting out and doing it. Create a short scenario that involves a basic tactical response. Keep it simple and straightforward to start with, and then add complexities and legal questions as you progress.

CAUTION: When practicing tactical skills through scenario-based training, it is imperative that no live weapons, ammunition, knives, batons, OC, electronic control devices (ECD) or other dangerous tools or instruments be allowed into the training site. This rule applies to the participants as well as those conducting the training.

Prepare Yourself Tactically.

1. Read professional books, magazines and publications. There are a number of excellent publications on tactical issues. The latest trends, studies and information on tactical response can be found in these publications.
2. Review your training notes and manuals. Again, the answers to a lot of your questions can be found in the pages of the manuals that got you to where you are today. A simple review of past training sessions can provide a quick refresher for tactical topics.
3. Review your agency policy and procedure manual. Your policy and procedure manual contains the agency’s view on tactical response, and is a guideline for appropriate response protocol.
4. Visit professional websites. There are a number of professional websites that offer the latest in law enforcement news, research, statistics and intelligence information.
5. Talk to those with experience. If you have questions or concerns, talk with someone you consider tactically sound. Your best sources of information and true experts in the field oftentimes ride the beat right next to you.
6. Attend training seminars and schools. Sign up for training seminars. There are dozens of reputable training organizations and agencies that do an excellent job with tactical training. Training seminars can be a good refresher and serve to recharge your battery.
7. Create scenario-based training exercises. Get a group of officers together and come up with a scenario. Work your way through it and problem solve it as a group. Don’t forget to allow time for debriefing. Topics might include: vehicle contacts, high-risk stops, room clearing, tactical approach and rapid deployment, to name a few.
8. Practice incident rehearsal. If you have a few minutes, sit back and go through a mental incident rehearsal. (More on incident rehearsal below.)

Am I Prepared Emotionally?

We must be prepared for and deal with the emotional aspects of our profession. Incidents of high stress and adrenaline dumps followed by lack of sleep, poor diet and physical and mental exhaustion leave our body and our immune system unprepared. Cumulative stress can occur when we experience a series of stressful events and none are adequately addressed. This cumulative stress can leave you burned out and detached from your family, friends and co-workers.

Nobody likes to admit they’re stressed out, but you yourself need to identify the emotional strain and take steps to correct it. The reasons for burnout are many. It could be you’re feeling overworked, you’ve been to a number of high intensity calls, or one call or incident bothers you for one reason or another. It could be that you’re feeling stress from the home front, and that stress is being carried over into your job. The causes of emotional stress are as varied as the officers that are affected. The one common result, however, is the detrimental effect emotional stress has on the body and your ability to develop a mental focus. Emotional stress can cause you to be mentally disengaged from your duties as an officer. When we become distracted from the task at hand in our profession, bad things can happen. It is imperative that you maintain your emotional health through constant self-assessment, peer counseling and professional guidance.

We practice and pay close attention to our legal, physical and tactical skills without question. What we oftentimes ignore is our own mental and emotional well-being. We dedicate hours of practice in firearms and deadly force decision making preparing for an incident that, for most of us, may never occur. But because it is a life and death situation, we must take this training seriously and be fully prepared for such an incident. On the other hand, we spend very little time training and preparing ourselves for the threat of becoming an emotional casualty. The threat of emotional injury is very real and very common. As Gordon Graham, a Risk Management and Law Enforcement Consultant, puts it, “If it’s predictable, it’s preventable.”

Prepare Yourself Emotionally.

1. Identify the fact that you are feeling the effects of stress. The first step in the battle to combat stress is to identify and admit that you’re feeling it. Take assessment of your situation and take steps to help yourself.
2. Identify that your partner(s) is/are feeling the effects of stress. If you perceive that someone you work with is feeling the effects of stress, take assessment of their situation. If you feel comfortable doing so, talk to them about it.
3. Talk it over with someone. Sometimes just talking about what is bothering you can help. Peer counseling can be a very effective process. You’d be surprised at how many people feel or have felt exactly the way you do. We’re all very similar and if something stresses you out, chances are it is or has stressed out someone else as well. Share your experience and offer strategies for resolving the situation.
4. Talk it over with a professional. We can only do so much to help one another out. The fact of the matter is there are a lot of professionals that have done extensive research and study in the area of stress in law enforcement. They have strategies and methods to address the unique problems presented by law enforcement officers. Try as we may to help one another, or ourselves, we are still cops that do psychology and social work on a part-time basis. Sometimes we need to let a professional help us.
5. Develop a plan for a healthy lifestyle. In his book, Emotional Survival for Law Enforcement, Dr. Kevin Gilmartin lists the following as a plan for an emotionally-healthy lifestyle:
   • Practice aggressive personal time management. Make a calendar scheduling off-duty events and activities and stick to it.
   • Be proactive versus reactive in your personal life.
   • Practice physical fitness, including diet and avoiding excesses.
   • Control your financial well-being. Avoid stress-related consumerism.
   • Maintain multiple roles in your life. You’re not just a cop; you’re also a mother, father, son, daughter, husband, wife, partner, coach, mentor/friend.
6. Do the research. Read books, take a class, surf the Internet. Find out what it is that will make you emotionally healthy and prepared for the job.

Am I Prepared Mentally?

Mental focus and discipline are among the most important tools that we possess. Your mental sharpness allows you to bring all the previous categories together and employ them in the most effective and efficient way possible. Mental readiness is the catalyst that brings all your skills to the forefront when needed. Mental focus is what drives you to do your best in a training session; it keeps you on task and alert during high intensity calls; and it keeps you engaged when your battery is running low and you need to make it to the end of a call or shift. Mental focus is the fuel that drives your endurance. It’s the internal switch that tells your body that you’re not tired, cold, bored or hungry.

Mentally Prepare Yourself.

1. Incident Rehearsal. Mentally rehearse incidents that you consider significant or have a lack of knowledge in. (See below)
2. Stress Inoculation. Prepare yourself for those situations that are stressful or personally disturbing to you. Training prepares you to deal with stressful situations by exposing your mind and body to incidents that would otherwise create a stress response. In the training environment, you can make mistakes; ask questions, debrief and rehearse, if necessary. The more you train, the higher your level of inoculation becomes. Stress inoculation creates a sense of “been there – done that,” which significantly reduces your stress response and allows you to function safely and effectively under high-stress situations.
3. “When–Then” Thinking. It is absolutely vital that officers engage in “when-then” thinking: when “x” occurs, then I will do “y.” Under extreme stress, your brain will spin through its “Rolodex” looking for similar situations and how you handled them. If nothing comes close, you may fall into condition black, i.e., panic mode. Thinking about what you will do and rehearsing it in your mind may go a long way towards inoculating your body from stress, allowing you to perform vital tasks during critical incidents. Contributed by Madison Police Officer Jason Freedman.
4. Color Codes of Awareness. Review the Color Codes of Awareness and apply the appropriate level of awareness to the situation that you are in. Be aware of the extreme levels – white and black – and apply only the highest level necessary so you don’t burn out from constant hyper vigilance.
   Color Codes of Awareness
   • White – Environmentally unaware. No readiness whatsoever. This condition may actually encourage an assault.
   • Yellow – Relaxed but alert. The ideal patrol mind set.
   • Orange – Alarm state. You perceive or anticipate action.
   • Red – Action state. Your peak performance level. You respond decisively to a threat.
   • Black – Panic mode. Your computer is searching for a response and not getting an answer.
5. Practice relaxation techniques. Meditation, yoga, stretching and autogenic breathing are all proven techniques that increase your level of mental awareness while providing physical relaxation.

Incident Rehearsal

Incident rehearsal is self-training exercise designed to program and supply your brain with information. Incident rehearsal can be as simple and spontaneous as practicing in your mind the words you’re going to use when first contacting a complainant, or as intricate and complex as what you’re going to do if the PDQ on your beat gets robbed. In the former example, we rehearse verbalizations and simple tasks almost without thinking. It becomes second nature to run through dialog and procedure in your mind before the event occurs. This sort of mental preparation occurs at all levels during every aspect of our lives, both personal and professional. Identify situations that you are unsure of, would like to refine, or have had no experience with. These sessions serve to fill your subconscious mind with those “packets” of information I spoke of previously.

Where incident rehearsal becomes extremely important is in our response(s) to high-risk situations. Rehearsal sessions are oftentimes very detailed and require a certain amount of time and forethought. In order to conduct an effective incident rehearsal session, we must do the following:

• Choose an incident that you would like to mentally prepare yourself for.
• Choose a quiet location free from distraction and interruption.
• If you’re on duty, choose a safe location so you can temporarily “disengage.”
• Create a scenario in your mind, such as an armed robbery at a convenience store.
• Visualize yourself being dispatched to or observing the armed robbery.
• Make the scenario as real as possible; insert sights, sounds, smells, etc., to maintain the realism and set the tone for the exercise.
• Walk yourself through your response to the incident, paying attention to every aspect of the approach and contact.
• Consider your radio traffic, tactical approaches, cover and concealment, responding unit deployment, escape routes, etc.
• Walk yourself through the incident, putting in “what ifs” as you bend and shape the complexity of the scenario. Examples might be: customers present/no customers present, or subject obviously armed/unknown if subject is armed.
• If you come across something that you’re unsure of, such as a tactical or legal question, make a note of it and find the answer. This will ensure that you fill in some of the gaps that you find in your response.
• If you are rehearsing a deadly force or use of force encounter, make certain that you go through each tactic or technique with textbook perfection. Visualize every aspect of your use of force and make it picture perfect.
• YOU MUST WIN! Visualize yourself winning the encounter; never allow yourself to lose.
• Consider rehearsing injury. What would you do should you become injured during an encounter? NEVER ALLOW YOURSELF TO BE OVERCOME OR DIE; YOU MUST ALWAYS WIN!
• See the entire exercise through to a resolution. Don’t shortchange the handcuffing, transport, turnover or booking process.
• If you had questions about certain aspects of the scenario, get the answers and go through a new rehearsal applying your new-found information.
• Rehearse your individual skills, such as verbalization, firearms or DAAT, as well as your tactical skills.
• Recall and relive real situations in which you were successful.

The purpose of incident rehearsal is to experience an incident before it really happens and the effects of stress distract you. It gives your body and your brain something to grab on to when you are unconsciously scanning your memory bank for information. Think of it in terms of a computer’s memory. If your computer does not have a program or information to satisfy a request you make of it, the computer will scan unsuccessfully for a few moments until it responds “file not found” or “program not found.” The same holds true for an incident in which we are relying on our brain to return vital information to our body in response to a request for action. If you do not have the information readily available, under medium to high levels of stress, you may freeze or panic because of your brain’s lack of required information. If you’ve trained or rehearsed a scenario – even a remotely similar scenario – your brain will have previous information to draw from and action will occur.

The good news is that your brain and body do not know the difference between a scenario that you’ve experienced firsthand, trained for or rehearsed in your mind. To your subconscious, it’s all the same thing – you’ve been there before!

Summary

Readiness for duty goes well beyond the surface preparations that you go through on a daily basis. You have an excellent foundation for all of the skills that have been discussed in this article. Using these preparation skills and strategies, you give yourself the best opportunity to enjoy a safe and successful law enforcement career, while at the same time living a healthy and satisfying personal life.

In their book Deadly Force Encounters, Dr. Alexis Artwohl and Loren Christensen identify the need for a focus on all three points of the Survival Triangle, those being Physical Survival, Legal Survival, and Psychological Survival. All three points of the triangle must be given full attention, for if any of the points of the triangle are minimized or disregarded, we could have tragic results. Consider all aspects of your preparation important, and give each category of preparation the appropriate amount of energy and focus that it deserves. Be Safe – Be Prepared – Be Healthy.

Bibliography & Recommended Reading

Books
Emotional Survival for Law Enforcement, Kevin M. Gilmartin, Ph.D. (Mental/ Emotional Preparation)
I Love a Cop, Ellen Kirschman, PhD (Mental/Emotional Preparation)
Stress Management for Law Enforcement Officers, Anderson, Swenson and Clay (Mental/Emotional Preparation)
Copshock, Surviving PTSD, Allen R. Kates (Mental/Emotional Preparation)
The Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Sourcebook, Glenn R. Schiraldi, PhD (Mental/Emotional Preparation)
The Gift of Fear – Survival Signals That Protect Us From Violence, Gavin De Becker (Mental/Emotional Preparation)
On Killing – The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society, Lt. Col. David Grossman (Mental/Emotional Preparation)
On Combat, Lt. Col. David Grossman (Mental/Emotional Preparation)
Deadly Force Encounters, Dr. Alexis Artwohl & Loren W. Christensen (Mental/Emotional Preparation)
Force Under Pressure – How Cops Live and Why They Die, Lawrence N. Blum (Mental/Emotional Preparation)
Stoning the Keepers at the Gate – Society’s Relationship with Law Enforcement, Lawrence N. Blum (Mental/Emotional Preparation)
Street Survival, Charles Remsberg (Tactical/Physical/Mental Preparation)
The Tactical Edge, Charles Remsberg (Tactical/Physical/Mental Preparation)
Tactics for Criminal Patrol, Charles Remsberg (Tactical/Physical/Mental Preparation)
Sharpening the Warrior’s Edge, Bruce Siddle (Tactical/Physical/Mental Preparation)
Getting Stronger, Bill Pearl (Physical Preparation)
Core Performance, Mark Verstegen (Physical Preparation)

Magazines
Law and Order, www.lawandordermag.com (Free)
Law Officer Magazine, www.lawofficermagazine.com (Free)
Police & Security News, www.policeandsecuritynews.com (Free)
Police, www.policemag.com ($25 annually)
Tactical Response, www.trmagonline.com (Free)
American Police Beat, www.apbweb.com (Free)
Law Enforcement Products News, www.magazines.com (Free)
Law Enforcement Technology, www.magazines.com (Free)

Websites
www.wppa.com
www.policeone.com
www.copsonline.com
www.officer.com
www.forcescience.org
www.wilenet.org
www.ntoa.org
www.menshealth.com
www.womenshealth.com
www.peoplespharmacy.org