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POLICE MOTORCYCLE TRAINING.
Introduction | Firearms Course | Ballistic Testing When working on the development of the course, I wanted to use training building blocks with the firearm skills. Most agency's firearms programs are a marksmanship course for testing purposes only. The officer stands in one position, told when and how many rounds to fire, when to reload and move or shoot at paper targets. Let's face it, most officers do not learn to shoot and move or shoot at multiple positions. And now this course they will be responsible to terminate the engine, draw, fire, dismount and move down below the motorcycle, everything working simultaneously.  After four hours of classroom involving lecture, videos and student's participation in regards to motorcycle positions, officer approaches and tactical considerations, the students move into dry firing with their firearm. Dry firing is the key to successful shooting, and repetition develops muscle memory. With their motorcycles the students will perform three hours of dry fire repetitions of all three positions and dismounts. Students will then practice various positions behind the motorcycle; double knee down, prone and moving around the motorcycle while the adversary moves. Motorcycle officers engage the side stand to their motorcycle thousands of times during their career, however, even in a sterile environment with added stress officers have a difficult time locating the stand and dismounting. Repetitions with dry firing! On the second day, the students participate in intermediate and advanced firearm techniques without their motorcycle. The techniques that are learned here will assist the students once the transition is made to the live fire with the motorcycle. The first technique will be having the Officers Square to the target, which makes it easier to move and gives the adversary the full face of the officers body armor. Second, I have the officers shoot with both eyes open, a technique that many tactical teams utilize and have been proven to be effective. The techniques utilized are; throwing diversions at the target (citation book/I use an empty ammo box for training) then moving to divide the attention of the adversary, static turns, firing on their back then transition to a sitted position, double knee down and a prone position, of course during these drills the officers are required to wear their issued motorcycle helmet and gloves if worn on duty. In addition, reloading commands, both emergency and tactical are given throughout the day in all drills. Once these drills are complete, a plastic barrel is now put into place to represent their motorcycle for shooting around, not over top. The students need to learn the importance of the eyes and weapon working together as a team. The reason is to avoid strikes to the motorcycle, and to the present date with the number of students I have trained, I have had numerous hits to the barrels, and only three to the motorcycles. I recommend the double knee down on this exercise knowing that there are pros and cons. The negative is that it may slow the officer down if a decision is made to move to another source of cover. The advantage is that it lowers your head below the motorcycle, lets face it if you sustain a round to the head or chest area there may not be a decision to move. The motorcycle officer maybe involved in three techniques while operating his motorcycle, with this in mind I developed three key positions.
During this course the students are shown a safe tactical maneuver for moving from one place of cover to another, another task that most officers are not exposed too. Once the officers have gained the confidence with these firearm techniques and with the motorcycle, we begin live fire on the range with the motorcycle. We have the officers ride on the range and when signaled they will engage with reactionary steel targets while using one of the three positions. While engaging the reactionary targets, we do not have a predetermined number of rounds; the officers will engage and reload, if necessary until the target is incapacitated. Once again a technique that most officers are not conditioned to perform, they are normally told to single or double tap, unfortunately bullets do not always work, therefore, we have the students fire until the adversary is incapacitated. For the final phase of training, realism is incorporated into the course. In normal range training you respond to a verbal command or whistle, in scenario training you respond to the other role player. This adds a sense of urgency to the situation. This dynamic training forces you to respond to a rapidly changing environment, that will force you to utilize the skills that the student had just learned. During this training the students are required to use simunitions, a great tool for law enforcement reality training. The motor officers in my agency have monthly in-service training for developing their skill and abilities in the operation of the motorcycle and for the past two years they now have BI-annual firearms training using this training course to assist them in survival. The training has now been increased to utilizing two motor officers and multiple adversaries. The confidence in the motorcycle as a point of cover has increased tremendously and now leaves no doubt in the officer's mind. Tasks, which are viewed as routine and repetitive by officers, pose a potential threat to the officer. Safety training must reflect real life circumstances to challenge the officer's abilities. We have to remember to train to survive and we will react the way we train. This course or some type of firearms/role playing/tactical is a must for the motor officer.  This
training article was written by Sergeant Jim Polan. Sgt. Polan has
23 years in Law Enforcement and is currently a Motor Sergeant for
the Fort Lauderdale Police Department in Florida. He has competed
in over 20 Police Motorcycle Rodeos with 10 first place finishes.
Sgt. Polan is an adjunct instructor for the Institute of Police Technology
and Management providing instruction in the Police Motorcycle Instructor
and Advanced Motorcycle operation courses. If you are a police motorcycle instructor and would like to share some of your knowledge with your fellow officers, please let us know. |
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