Police may introduce ‘tailored’ defensive tactics training model
Police are understood to be considering introducing a defensive tactics model, which would see some officers (probably response staff) receive tailored defensive tactics training in keeping with the type of work they routinely do.
Police News understands that the proposal could see officers who are more likely to be involved in conflict getting more training while others, who are in administrative or desk-bound jobs, would receive a minimum, training package or perhaps no training at all. Districts may be left to determine who got the most training and who got the minimum but initially the Operations Advisory Group (OAG), in conjunction with Police National Headquarters, would be formulating policy. The new system, if adopted, would effectively tailor training to places where Police feel it was most likely to be of benefit to those most likely to be exposed to violence.
Considerations
The proposal is set to go to the Operations Advisory Group (OAG – formerly known as TOAG, or Tactical Operations Advisory Group) and if approved would then go to the Police Executive Committee (PEC) for a final seal of approval before being rolled out. NZ Police reduced defensive tactics training from eight hours to four hours annually from 1 July last year. The Association was not consulted about the reduction in hours. The firearms component of Staff Safety Tactical training modules is not affected. Police say they reduced defensive tactics training after hearing feedback from districts, which indicated there was too much training. Feedback from frontline officers, spoken to by Police News, indicates a feeling that there was too much ‘classroom theory’ training rather than ‘operational-type’ practical training. Several officers spoken to for feedback said that they favoured the delivery of training, which emphasised simulation of scenarios they may encounter in their day-to-day work.
Review
National Manager of Training and Professional Development, Superintendent Mike Wilson, said the decision to reduce the defensive tactics training from eight to four hours wasn’t taken lightly and was done after a review/snapshot of the delivery of defensive tactics throughout the districts. “This is part of balancing the overall national training requirement for district staff. We discovered that it (the training delivery) was much shorter than the eight hours, in some places a few hours and in others six hours. The average was about four hours and while it was a challenge to us to look at delivery in that average time, at the end of the process we came up with the view that the right stuff could be delivered within four hours that would cover the risks to staff.”
Good content
He told Police News that he thinks Police have a good content within the four hours. “It’s based on SSTT injury data reports and so the training is geared towards the sort of injuries that are coming through.” The Police Association is advocating that minimum training requirements be brought into line with the Victorian Police model of two days firearms training and two days Staff Safety Tactical Training (SSTT). NZ Police Association President Greg O’Connor told Police News: “The situation in Victoria demonstrates that we should be putting more emphasis on defensive tactics training, not reducing it. It effectively shows that NZ Police is below what other police services regard as a minimum requirement for defensive tactics training and this is one area we do not want to be the poor cousins to anyone in.”
"In 2006 a police officer walked into court in the middle of the day to deliver a piece of paper to a Prosecutor and was attacked in the foyer. During the subsequent apprehension, the offender died of apparent positional asphyxia. Naturally, the officer’s training came under scrutiny by the IPCA and featured in their commentary. This shows that anyone wearing a police uniform, or known to be a police officer can become involved in violent situations very quickly. “Every police officer should insist on a minimal level of training to ensure that he or she is prepared for such a situation.”
SSTT programme
The current NZ Police Staff Safety Tactical Training (SSTT) programme was instituted on the back of a similar Victorian Police programme, which was initiated as a result of an investigation entitled ‘Project Beacon’. Victorian Police originally had a 12-month training cycle that included two days of defensive tactics as well as two days of firearms training annually. All New Zealand recruits are required to undergo nine days’ basic firearms training before graduation. Once graduated, an officer is required to undergo 24 hours firearms training every year, made up of training with the Glock pistol and Bushmaster rifle and four hours defensive tactics training, which involves training in the defensive tactical options framework in:
• De-escalating conflict andcommunications;
• Carotid hold assessment;
• O/C spray re-assessment;
• ASP (extendable) baton assessment;
• Handcuff take down revision;
• Long-baton drills with the emphasis on teamwork;
• One, two and three-person arrest drills (referred to as ‘control and restraint’ bymany law and order organisations).
Taser a last resort
”While we are told we are getting the Taser it will often be used as a last resort where deadly force may otherwise be necessary and could save lives as a result but the Police should not lot lose sight of the fact that defensive tactics should still form a valuable part of every officer’s skill set,” Mr O’Connor said. The implementation of Taser is the subject of a budget bid by Police this year.
Association concerns
In a letter to Commissioner Broad, Association President Greg O’Connor voiced the Association’s concerns when defensive tactics delivery hours were halved last year, saying that he was “surprised and extremely concerned” at the decision. “Reducing the number of training hoursseems to be contrary to all the evidence regarding the need for such training. The number of reported assaults on our members has been increasing, as has the number and type of weapons, drug and/or alcohol affected members of the public, people with mental health issues and violent/disorderly behaviours. This environment would point towards the retention of eight hours training. Indeed, we understand that member feedback is that they need more rather than less training,” Mr O’Connor said.
Health and safety risk
The Association believes any reduction in defensive tactics training hours for any officer presents an unacceptable health and safety risk for police and the public. Mr O’Connor said at the time the hours were cut, that it “places further pressure on our members’ at a time when they are under greater public scrutiny”. In reply, Commissioner Broad said that the decision had been taken “following advice that, on average, the required training was being delivered in much less time than allocated.” He said the intention was not to reduce the amount or type of training given, “merely the time allocated for its completion.” Commissioner Broad said Police would “continue to monitor in detail the incidence and types of assaults of our officers and any injuries sustained, and will adapt training accordingly to maximise officers’ safety consistent with their ability to carry out their operational duties”.
“Better planning around other training”
Commissioner Broad said that the decision was taken in order to “allow better planning around other training and for improvements to availability planning for those responsible for deployment of frontline staff”. Staff safety is a complex mixture of training, equipment and tactics with the maintenance of officer safety paramount in trainers’ minds. In the 2007-08 reporting year, attacks on police officers rose by 6% (up from 2,248 to 2,384).
UK experience
In the UK, the number of delivery hours varies from force to force. The death of Detective Constable Stephen Oake of the Greater Manchester Police, who was stabbed to death in an anti-terrorism operation after a reduction in the defensive tactics delivery programme sparked heavy criticism of police bosses. Mr Oake had not been wearing a stab-resistant vest. The murder led to a change in policy by the Practioners’ Group of The Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO), who recommended a minimum of 12 hours refresher training (delivered in two six hour days). This was seen by ACPO as the minimum training time allowable to keep officers safe and was eventually adopted. Oake had formerly been attached to Prime Minister Tony Blair’s protection detail. He was stabbed to death while trying to protect fellow officers from assailant, Kamel Bourgass. Bourgass was sentenced in 2004 to 22 years in prison for murdering the policeman. Mr Oake was posthumously awarded the Queen’s Gallantry Medal. Greater Manchester Police had reduced their defensive training tactics programme to the same levels as New Zealand Police before the Oake killing.
Fiscal motivation
In the UK, the cuts were related to fiscal savings. It seems doubtful that NZ Police would have that as its motivation, even though public sector bosses are being asked to cut back on budgets as the economic recession bites deeper into Government finances. Some officers spoken to by Police News ventured that the cuts could be a reaction to the introduction of the Taser rather than fiscally motivated, though it appears there will be cost savings if the tailored programme is adopted. They say that management thinking might be that with the likelihood of fewer officers being injured as a result of the introduction of Tasers that defensive tactics could be safely reduced. They also say such thinking would be flawed on two fronts:
(1) Taser is only to be used as a last resort and
(2) Only four districts will have the Taser and access to them will be strictly controlled rather than every officer having access to them on his or her duty belt, as is the case in many overseas jurisdictions. Police say this is not the case. A Police spokesperson said that Taser is “a tactical option available for use in appropriate circumtances where the threat of assault is high, just as other options are”. Firearms would still be used in appropriate circumstances where there was high-level risk. The intention was to roll out Taser to all districts but that this was “budgetdependant”.
Importance
“Incidents arise in a flash and while the Taser will be a very valuable tool in containing extremely violent offenders it will not always be available and therefore defensive tactics are as important as ever on the street,” one officer said, mirroring the opinions of several spoken to by Police News. Police recently delivered an intensive three-day training programme to certify instructorsin Waitematä, Auckland City, Counties-Manukau and Wellington districts, where Tasers are to be rolled out shortly.
Training of frontline response staff in the use of Tasers, in these four districts, is to be completed next month. For some officers the courses will be new while others will undertake a refresher course. The reality is that to train people in any discipline to a high standard means consistent training for a mastery of the requisite skills. As one officer rightly pointed out: “The difference between giving some people three and a half hours (smoko time is 30 minutes) of training and the previous six hours (eight hours minus time for lunch and smoko breaks) is really only tinkering around the fringes.”
Communication
Research in the field of defensive tactics suggests that the best option for deescalation of a potentially volatile situation is verbal communication but, as many a police officer can attest, the art of talking does not always lead to such a resolution. The use of force is sometimes the only option left open. Police train for all possibilities.
In recent years, Police have sought to more accurately reflect society’s diversity by recruiting more female officers and officers from various ethnic communities. Women and Asian officers are generally of smaller stature. Police sources have told Police News that defensive tactics training for smaller officers is a critical aspect of their
training in case defusing a situation verbally is not successful.
Female officers
Female officers have proved very adept at defusing potentially volatile situations but equally offenders may, rightly or wrongly, view a police officer of smaller stature as someone they may be more willing to ‘have a go’ at. Fifty-six percent (56%) of femaleofficers have less than five years police service and are therefore more likely to be posted to frontline positions where there is a greater risk of being assaulted. A recent savage attack on a policewoman in Papakura, which left her with serious facial injuries, was further evidence of a generation of offenders who have no respect for police or any compunction about ‘having a go’.
Fatalities
Five police officers have died as a result of being viciously assaulted while on duty. Constable John Doyle died in 1913 after being assaulted during a scuffle with two men in the Albany Hotel, Shannon. In 1966, Constable Donald Richard Stokes died after being beaten by prisoners escaping from the Dunedin Police Station’s cells. In 1977, Traffic Officer Barry Yorston Gibson was assaulted by a motorist and died of head injuries in Taranaki and in 1990 Senior Constable Peter Morris Umbers, 35, was bashed to death with his own baton when he stopped a motorist near Ranfurly, Central Otago. Nine years later, Mangakino’s Constable Murray Stretch was bashed to death in the small Waikato town.
Assaults on police officers have risen steadily over the last 10 years from 1,878 assaults during the 1998-99 year through to the 2,385 in 2007-08. Crimes Act assaults during the same decade have shown an average increase of nearly 14% (up from 193 to 460). Crimes Act assaults cover everything from common assault to very serious assaults. Assaults with weapons of any kind (firearms, machetes, knives etc) have increased by 72% in the last decade, from 57 in the 1998-99 reporting year to 98 in the 2007-08 statistics. Last year they rose a little over 11%. Recent statistics from the USA bear out the importance of defensive training for all officers – particularly simple, effective empty hand defensive tactics.
Domestics risk
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) statistics on assaults and killings of police officers highlighted that most officer assaults were at the scene of domestic violence callouts (31.7%). Assailants used their fists, hands or feet in 80.2% of these assaults while 3.7% resorted to the use of firearms, knives or cutting instruments (1.7%) while 14.4% of the assaults involved “other weapons”.
The FBI report said that 57 police officers died in the line of duty (48 were killed in 2007) while a further 83 officers were killed in accidents. Some 59,201 officers suffered assaults while on duty. The average age of officers killed on duty was 37 years and the average length of service for an officer was 10 years.
All of the slain officers were male. Of the 57 deaths (55 by gunshot and two with vehicles), 16 of the slain officers were involved in arrest situations, 16 were ambushed, 11 were performing traffic stops, five were answering disturbance calls, and four were investigating suspicious persons or circumstances. Of the remaining five officers killed, three were in tactical situations (e.g., high-risk entry); one was performing investigative duties; and one had custody of a prisoner for transport. If the delivery hours for defensive training remain at half its former level, which now seems certain, it follows that increased delivery to those in frontline response positions at the expense of those behind desks seems more than likely.
One-size-fits-all model
Currently, Police operate a one-size-fits-all model of defensive tactics. Police National Headquarters administrative staff receive the same level of defensive tactics training as frontline response officers in South Auckland, Lower Hutt, Christchurch or Dunedin. Police have traditionally argued that all police need to be in a state of “operational readiness”, so that in the event of civil disorder or major public disruptions as happened in 1981 during the Springbok Tour, it would be all hands to the pump.
But that model has its detractors, even amongst instructors spoken to by Police News. They say the one-size-fits-all approach to training diffuses efforts to improve the skills of staff that need to resort to defensive tactics techniques on a daily basis (e.g. frontline staff in places like South Auckland).
Tailored training
Chris Foggin, an 18-year veteran as a defensive tactics trainer, says that if Police cannot be convinced that the cut in defensive tactics training hours is a backward step (see story on page 66) then perhaps the next best thing would be graded or tailored training. “This was tried in the UK. That was on the understanding that if people aren’t on the frontline then there isn’t a lot of point in giving them firearms training and giving them the whole package on defensive tactics training. For example, someone working behind a desk is unlikely to be involved in something that requires defensive tactics. A graded response would mean that someone in Prosecutions, who does not go operational but who may encounter a confrontation in a court may need half of the programme but not all of the programme,” Foggin said.
“We are training people in firearms training scenarios who never pick up firearms (in the course of their job). We have people from the Commercial Investigation Unit (CVIU) who are 60 years of age who are never going to use a firearm but we are training them,” Foggin said. “There are others such as Prosecutions staff too where if Police needed to save time and money they could do so there without detracting from the service delivery to those who really need it. And the same applies to the defensive tactics training where we are training staff who will never be in a position in their jobs to have to use those skills.”
Protection through training
Foggin and others are saying to Police that there is a great need for a further enhancement of defensive tactics training to protect officers who are increasingly being assaulted during the course of their general policing duties. But they admit that for those who are not in such a position and the needs and risks are much less significant, then the department might be best to “cut it’s cloth accordingly”, as one instructor put it.
One officer who works in an administrative capacity told Police News that he had not arrested anyone for over a decade. “That’s not say that when I am driving home tonight that I won’t need to intervene in some incident that I stumble across but the chances of that happening are remote. My duties do not require me to carry OC spray, ASP baton, handcuffs or a long baton yet I receive the same level of defensive tactics training as a GDB section member in South Auckland, who carry these things routinely and probably make arrests on a daily basis too,” the officer said.
Risk-management issue
Foggin again: “The scenario of training everyone just in case they may come across an incident in the street is a risk-management issue. At the end of the day, what are the percentages of those unlikely events happening where you come out of the office and an armed robbery happens in front of you? It’s likeanything, you could be off duty and something could arise but the moon could fall out of the sky too and that doesn’t mean to say we should train everyone up for that possibility.” At any one time, around 16% of all police officers are exempt from firearms training. Based on those figures approximately 1,345 staff would currently carry an exemption. Only about 150 police officers or 1.8% of a total of 8,307 have an exemption from defensive tactics training. Exemptions may be granted for such things as injuries or pregnancy.
Association position
The Police Association has traditionally taken the line that there should be no exemptions to firearms training and that defensive tactics are such an important part of the overall safety of officers and their ability to perform their duties that training should be delivered in eight hour blocks to every officer. It still maintains that position. However, in light of a 50% reduction in defensive training time, some officers are saying that Police have an obligation to provide those on the frontline with extra training, even if that comes at the expense of those sitting behind desks in administrative positions.
“Logically, it makes sense to provide fewer staff with an enhanced level of firearms training, for instance, so as they are up to speed and provided with an easy mechanism for staff to get back up to speed when they transfer into an operational role or want to deploy overseas than to be training people who are in purely administrative roles,” one trainer said.
Perishable skill
Foggin says that New Zealand Police can move forward. “We have firearms training once every six months for an incredibly perishable skill at an incredibly dangerous level. We have defensive tactics training which is the basis of everything being reduced right down but you have people coming along to those courses who never use those skills, so I really believe it does need a review of it to say who should have what.
“Every officer who has gone through the College will remember the basics of defence, how to stand, where to move, how to push someone off and essentially we don’t want to complicate things. It could be a matter of tailoring the package you deliver to more people.”
Other factors
One officer spoken to by Police News said the fact that there are so few firearms and ballistic vests available in police stations “to anyone beyond section and road policing staff” tends to suggest that a more tailored approach towards enhancing the capabilities of those most likely to have to use them may be a better use of resources.
Police Association President Greg O’Connor says while he can see that the Police decision to reduce the defensive tactics training hours has forced a rethink by some officers as to the best use of resources, the Association takes a broader view. “We understand fully that those that are on duty but also those officers that are off-duty need to be able to respond to incidents that may happen out of the blue. Afterall, this is no more than our sworn duty and what any member of the public should rightly expect of any police officer. If a police officer sees an offence he or she is expected to respond with appropriate action. Even those officers in the most sedentary of positions still live in neighbourhoods where they may be called upon to respond at any time,” he said.
Reputation
“It diminishes the whole status of police officers if an officer can’t respond. There has already been a diminution of the defensive tactics hours and the Association is vehemently opposed to that decision. We would not wish to see any further diminution of the status of any police officer in the eyes of the public as a result of a ‘tailoring’ of the programme even further, which could leave an officer vulnerable.”
Currently, the SSTT programme runs on the goodwill of secondments from districts to maintain the training operations. With the push by the previous Labour Government to increase recruiting the net effect has been greater pressure on the SSTT programme delivery. Police News understands that the total staffing deficit nationwide could be as much as 16 staff (15 instructors and a sergeant).
Increasing numbers
Between 2000-2008 the number of staff attending a one-day firearms training session every six months has increased by 28.2%. The audience attending SSTT defensive tactics training has increased by 53.8% in that same period although the staffing resource has not increased. Police have an Email reminder system, which has helped in alerting officers to the fact that their SSTT ‘warrant of fitness’ is due to expire. This, coupled with the linkage of training attendance to Competency Service Increments (CSI) payments, are both factorsthat have contributed to the increased staff attendance rates at the SSTT programme.
