Law Enforcement Firearms Training

This is a touchy subject so let me first clarify our position. We love our brothers and sisters in blue and support ethical local police action. Is every cop perfect? No. Do all cops inevitably make some mistakes? Sure. But at the end of the day I believe most law enforcement are out to do a good job and get safely home to their families.

Which is precisely why we teach so many of them through our Law Enforcement Firearms Training Program. What we seem to continually run across is the gross under-preparation police officers get from the academy in the use of firearms and even individual self defense tactics.

Now in truth carrying a firearm is part of their daily lives but using it is an incredibly small part of their job. But when it is needed it is absolutely imperative that they know how to use it effectively.

Quality police departments contract with trainers outside their department to get officers regular training. It is expensive and a cost of doing business but so to is having an officer not make it home because the chief of police didn’t want to sign an overtime slip or provide some ammunition.

Our general recommendation is that patrol officers should be attending a course for CE credit once a quarter because that may be the only firearms training they get. The last class of our Patrol Officer Pistol 1 course I asked them how many times a year they shot. Unanimously they answered just at their biannual qualification.

The simple realty is most police officers are not shooters. Some are and some are absolutely amazing and skilled shooters and then they get promoted to training counselor. But just because they are good tactical shooters does not mean they are good instructors. The bottom line is you owe it to your department to find competent training counselors outside of your organization to provide specialized training in what they need to survive and come home.

Police officers need training in firearms, edged weapons defense, baton use, use of force, OC spray, tasers, de-escalation, unarmed combative, the list literally goes on. Each of those disciplines have experts that are outside of your department that can be purchase at very affordable prices to come and train your organizations. Find the component experts and get your patrol officers, detectives, SWAT teams, etc. the training they need.