# P1 Exclusive: EVOC training best practices



## kwflatbed (Dec 29, 2004)

*P1 Exclusive: EVOC training best practices*

*Police Driving:
Safety Behind the Wheel*
with Capt. Travis Yates

I recently attended a training conference and left with more questions than answers. I found myself talking to instructors from across the world and hearing a wide array of answers to how to best train law enforcement officers. The conversations got me to thinking about how we train and why we train the way we do.
The term "Best Practices" is often thrown around within law enforcement circles. In the last three decades we've seen a radical increase in law enforcement training, the use of technology and with that the use of "best practices" to evolve that training. Indeed, anyone who has been in law enforcement for more than a few years knows that everything from high-risk vehicle stops to active shooter response has been changed through the years. These changes almost always improve how we respond to incidents and essentially makes law enforcement and the community safer.
What about emergency vehicle operations and the training accompanying that? Many agencies have been training in this high risk activity for more than two decades and some of that training has not changed. What are the best practices in emergency vehicle operations training?
Several months ago I was supervising a pursuit course. I looked out and saw a challenging course that tested the student's ability to drive. There were plenty of opportunities to test their skill level in steering, braking, accelerating and cornering. I saw the violator vehicle driving fast and the student doing a very good job of maintaining a visual on the suspect while talking on the radio.
What troubled me was what I did not see. I didn't see any vehicle traffic. I didn't see any intersections. Most importantly, I didn't see anything that resembled a real pursuit. I was absolutely angry at what I saw. I had been managing, supervising, and instructing emergency vehicle operations for more than a decade - I was responsible for training officers in one of the most high risk behaviors they can do - and that training was about as unrealistic as it could get. Simply put, when a student left that training course, they would never drive in a pursuit like that again. They would never be in a pursuit that didn't encounter intersections or vehicle traffic. I had to accept the possibility that I was training officers to be nothing but fast drivers on a closed course with no real sense of danger or critical decision making. I was building overconfidence and on that day I decided that was going to stop.

Full Article:http://www.policeone.com/police-pro...59-P1-Exclusive-EVOC-training-best-practices/


----------

