By
Gene Miller,
IPMBA Education Chair
Training saves
lives
As most of you are aware, IPMBA has a very good,
bicycle-specific firearms training tape available that will provide your
department with a basic training course. The course-of-fire and the training
tape were developed by my department to help address a specific training
need.
Bicycle officers around the country were getting
into shooting situations and losing as many as they were winning. Utilizing
the training course that is on the tape, we were able to illustrate several
concerns. The most important concern was that officers were negatively affected
by the presence of the bicycle gloves. Officers that had been shooting in
the high 90's were suddenly 50 - 70% shooters. The winter gloves affected
the officers' accuracy even more than the summer gloves.
The second concern was that newer bicycle officers
were negatively affected by the bicycle itself. Increased time on the bicycle
squad equated to increased confidence and competence in the necessary bicycle
handling skills. This, in turn, led to decreased stress levels when required
to perform these skills and subsequently shoot, and that led to improved
accuracy.
The third concern was that poorly conditioned
officers' shooting skills would be negatively affected by moderate physical
exertion. Conversely, officers in good physical condition had their shooting
skills positively affected by moderate levels of physical exertion
We were able to show a need for ongoing
bicycle-specific firearms training, a need for in-service training for bicycle
officers to further develop their on-bike handling skills, and to clearly
show the need for fitness standards for all bicycle officers. Hopefully,
most of you already have the tape. But if your department does not, and your
department does not yet understand any of the above three concerns. buy the
tape yourself (Available through IPMBA by calling 410-685-2220. - Editor)
Every department should have at least 4 hours
of bicycle-specific firearms training at least four times a year, in addition
to any regular firearms training that your department may provide. The
bicycle-specific training should require that bicycle gloves be worn at all
times. It should be done twice in winter gloves and twice in summer gloves.
There are several elements of firearms training
that should be covered. Probably the most important is the gloved holster
drill. Officers must be able to get their weapons out quickly to win a gun
battle. They will do them no good in the holster. Drawing a weapon with gloves
on has a totally different feel, and will require practice. This should be
done a minimum of 50 times with an unloaded weapon.
The next drill is called a single tap drill.
Bicycle officers will initially shoot either left or right of center, due
to the grip change with gloves. The single tap drill allows each officer
to see where they are hitting, and to take any corrective action necessary.
This too should be done a minimum of 50 times, with multiple targets so that
officers do not loose track of where they are hitting.
The third drill is a double tap drill. It is
the same as the single tap drill, but now doing double taps. This will bring
up their confidence levels when putting shots together. There should be at
least 20 repetitions of this drill.
Most bicycle officers will become 70% or better
shooters with just these three drills alone. However, the officers will lose
it as fast as they got it if these drills aren't done on a regular basis.
Additional drills addressing reloading and
malfunction clearance should also be done, and again, they should be done
with gloves. At that point the officers will have received the basics, but
that is not where it should stop.
The most common injuries bicycle officers experience
in falls are those that disable an arm: injuries to the collar bone, forearm,
shoulder, etc. We must address this in training by teaching bicycle officers
off hand draws and off hand shooting. Additionally, bicycle officers must
receive training on relative positioning shooting. This means shooting wherever
the officer ends up. If a bicycle officer is being shot at, or faces some
other imminent risk, they may have to exit their bicycle quickly. Independent
of where and how they end up, officers must be able to get into the fight
quickly. Developing the officers' drawing and shooting skills while on the
ground in various positions may mean the difference between living and dying.
There are two very good courses for those of
you who want to receive this type of firearms training and more advanced
training. One is IPMBA's own Advanced Police Cyclist Course. This course
is 40 hours long. Another is given by HK International Training Division.
IPMBA was instrumental in the development of this course and HK utilizes
IPMBA certified instructors during all of its bicycle specific training.
Contact Gene Zink at (703) 450-1900 ext. 244 for more information
God forbid you should need to utilize this
bicycle-specific firearms training but my motto is, ''Better to have it and
not need it, than to need it but not have it.''
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