Law Enforcement Classes vs. Civilian Classes.

Having spent the past 27 years in law enforcement and almost as long teaching various topics to law enforcement (LEOs) and civilians, I have some ideas on the subject I would like to share. Focusing on deadly force with the firearm and maybe some closely related tactics, there are important differences between the two groups of students.

First of all, civilians are there because they want to be there. Presumably, they have paid their own way and want to learn what the instructor has to offer to become better shooters and tacticians. This category also includes LEOs who take open-enrollment classes.

LEOs who attend department-mandated training are never paying for it, and are often not there to learn and improve unless it happens by accident. They are there because they have to be there. Orders to go to a school or class do not usually inspire people to high levels of attention and achievement. Many are not interested in the subject and would avoid any range or tactics training if they could.

As a firearms instructor, which group would you rather spend your time teaching? We will come back to that question later.

These differences are very important and need to be taken into account when teaching and designing courses. As far as I can tell though, they don’t seem to be, unless you count a dumbed-down explanation or drill as being appropriate for LEOs. On the other end of the spectrum, high-speed enthusiast instructors want to pretend that LEOs care about the latest and greatest competition techniques and equipment, and insist on teaching things that their students will never be able to do because of lack of interest which means lack of practice.

Don’t get me wrong, there are aspects of shooting that simply need to be covered and learned as well as possible, even given the average LEO’s indifference to the subject. Adults are going to adult and if they choose mediocrity, there isn’t much anyone else can do. I’m sure all of us have done the same thing at one point or another about one topic or another.

Technically separate, though related, is the issue of shooting schools vs instructor schools. This becomes a big issue in the LE world, where departments often need or want to send their instructors to various “instructor schools” so that they can bring the latest and greatest back to the troops. If you offer an instructor school and it is basically the same as your normal shooting school, you are not qualified to train the trainers. This does not mean that your school should focus on teaching methods and practices vs. shooting. I view a good “how to teach school” as an essential part of any instructor’s development, but most of the time, those concepts and practices are best taught separately from shooting, as they apply to all sorts of teaching.

I have been thinking about these issues for many years now and what I wrote above is generally true, but not always. I just got back from a week in sunny California where I had the pleasure of presenting my version of an instructor development class (NOT a trainer certification class) for a major southern Sheriff’s Office. The deputies in the class were all a part of the SWAT team, though they don’t use that term there. To a man, they were not only excellent shooters, but they had the best attitude I think I have ever seen in a class. They were attentive, asked great questions, didn’t dilly dally or ever have to be asked or told anything twice. They squared the ranges away, put up targets and simply performed. When I offered a correction to any one of them, they made the correction immediately and kept working at it. They were what people think of when they describe someone as professional.

I don’t expect that I will get to work with as good a group of professionals ever again and I say that because though I have traveled the country and the world teaching military and law enforcement teams, I have never seen a group like this one. The teams I served on varied in skill and dedication, but I can say that as good as some of them shot, none of them had quite as good an attitude as these deputies. The old joke about cops asking first when lunch is and second when do they get out certainly does not apply here.

I was able to award 6 advanced FAST pins out of 12 shooters and the other shooters were incredibly close. I don’t expect to top that anytime soon. It was one of the finest weeks I have spent on a range.