Sykes Group LLC
Law Enforcement/Security Training & Consulting
Failure is not an option

Sykes Group Protective Services Bulletin
"Failure is not an Option"
August 2011
In The News

Train with us now for the day shall come!

**********

3 lessons learned from a surprise knife attack

Three important lessons about suspect control were driven home for a Nashville officer — with knife slashes to his face, neck, and back. The attack occurred as P.O. II John Timm and his zone partner Ofcr. Mike Hunnicutt of the Metropolitan Nashville PD were attempting to resolve a domestic conflict.

An Hispanic male had tried to pick up his young daughter after school but school authorities would not release her to him because the child’s mother (the man’s ex-girlfriend) was the custodial parent. He took her anyway. Police were alerted and Timm and Hunnicutt detained the subject on a traffic stop a short time later. The child was in the car, apparently unharmed.

“We got the parties out of the car,” Timm told PoliceOne. The mother showed up and “the situation escalated due to the suspect not wanting to give up the child. There was a lot of...read more

Fighting Grassroots Terrorism: How Local Vigilance Can Help

In the wake of the July 22 Oslo attacks, as I have talked with people in the United States and Europe, I have noticed two themes in the conversations. The first is the claim that the attacks came from an unexpected source and were therefore impossible to stop. The second theme is that detecting such attacks is the sole province of dedicated counterterrorism authorities.

As discussed in last week’s Security Weekly, even in so-called “unexpected” attacks there are specific operational tasks that must be executed in order to conduct an operation. Such tasks can be detected, and unexpected attacks emanating from lone wolf actors can indeed be thwarted if such indicators are being looked for. Alleged Oslo attack perpetrator Anders Breivik reportedly conducted several actions that would have made him vulnerable to detection had the authorities been vigilant and focused on those possible actions.

This is why it is critical to look at the mechanics of attacks in order to identify the steps that must be undertaken to complete them and then focus on identifying people taking such steps. Focusing on the...read more

Controlling Your State as a Tactical Athlete

For the tactical athlete there is always a great deal of stress present. It starts in the preparation or training phase and Tactical Athlete continues into ‘live’ situations.

Unlike sport athletes that have an off-season, the tactical athlete doesn’t have this luxury, so state management is even more critical. If state is not controlled, in a positive manner, it can cause the tactical athlete to react both physically and mentally in a manner that will negatively affect their performance abilities.

They may become...read more

Recognizing the Signs and Signals of Crime and Danger

Your duties require, you make observations to detect potential threats or criminal activity. As you stand your post or patrol your sector, just what is it you are looking for? What are the things that alert you to wrong doing? Alert you to danger? This post will be the first of two parts and will focus on the signs and signals to look for in the performance of our duties to help us prevent crime and threats from taking place and keep us safe while doing so.

Your on patrol, the day is sunny about 55 degrees. All has been quiet thus far during your shift. As you pass by a service station at 30 mph you note a tow truck, a flat bed with two vehicles loaded. You think to yourself, "nothing unusual here, a gas/service station and tow truck, with two vehicles on board; all seems OK? Then you note there are...read more

After 9/11, more threats against US malls

A janitor spots an abandoned diaper bag lying on a table in the sprawling food court at the Mall of America. A bomb-sniffing dog and a security officer are there within minutes, examining the package while nearby shoppers are held a safe distance away.

No bomb. Case closed. But that scene is repeated at the nation's largest shopping center 150 times a month.

Years ago, lost purses or shopping bags would just go to the lost and found. But after the Sept. 11 attacks and a series of terror threats against malls, "we realized that bad guys don't write `explosives' on the side of packages," said Maj. Douglas Reynolds.

He heads a 150-officer security force trained in...read more

Balanced Tactics

Terrain is seldom in your favor; darkness may mask the ground, shadows confuse your vision, your legs are stiff from sitting for hours. All of these factors will ultimately affect your balance. In BLET you were taught stances and foot positions to enhance balance and allow you better and more effective defensive tactics. If you have enhanced your skills with martial arts, boxing, MMA or ju jitsu you have undoubtedly mastered the ability to maintain your balance in a combat situation. Many an officer has found themselves loosing their balance just when you need to keep it the most. There is a way to improve your balance while making yourself stronger, more fit and while improving your offensive and defensive tactics.

As a fitness, rehabilitation and injury...read more

10 years after 9/11: Terrorism lessons we (should have) learned

As we approach the 10th anniversary of our nation’s most costly terrorist attack, we must ask ourselves if we have learned all we should have — all we could have from the terrible lessons these monsters have taught. Whether the killers are domestic or international in origin, we must endeavor to never repeat any errors we made in our anticipation, preparation, or response to horrific events.

One excellent example of proper learning is the emergency response and evacuation after terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center in New York. Look at the combined image below and to the left. In the topmost image, you will see perhaps the world’s best example of emergency vehicle gridlock, in the NYPD and FDNY response to the 1993 attack, which involved a 1,300 pound chemical VBIED detonated in the underground parking deck (killing six people and injuring thousands). The transport of injured persons was greatly hampered that day by the “crush” of emergency responders and their vehicles. Beneath that you see the same street in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attack. New York responders had learned their lesson and kept half of the street free of emergency vehicles to facilitate the flow of resources. Other lessons they learned from the 1993 attack included:...read more

A Trained Response

The whole idea is that you have a trained response to non-deadly and deadly threats. For instance, if confronted with a suspect that you're attempting to handcuff who starts to resist you have trained responses for what to do. Absent a trained response, we resort to brute force, wrestling type maneuvers that frequently result in officer and suspect injuries. (A brief side-note here, officers are frequently injured from attempting to control suspects in hazardous environments, e.g. knee injuries from broken glass on the asphalt or collisions with walls as well as trips and falls on furniture or other objects. All of these possibilities are magnified while wrestling with suspects.)

Take that same resisting suspect and start blasting him with...read more

Ambushing / Counter Ambushing, Pt 2

Whether on foot patrol, bike patrol, or in a vehicle, attack recognition and response is critical. Try to use heightened awareness to recognize pre-attack indicators and minimize the physical effects of surprise.

Ask yourself five questions:

1. When do I move? 2. Where do I move? (to and from) 3. How do I move? 4. Where am I the most predictable? 5. Where am I the most vulnerable?

A few tactics that we have been told about (but may have forgotten):

When caught out in the open, prone is still a good position and can be used with gutters and curbs.

Light, power and phone poles are excellent; mail boxes, vehicle engine blocks, trees. Anything that stops or re-directs incoming fire is your temporary friend.

Drawing and being able to shoot and hit on the move is a must.

Consider practicing (red or blue gun, not the real one) drawing while belted in your vehicle, shooting through the windshield and side windows, bailing out rapidly, getting to other cover. Also practice the same while seated in a chair such as that used at a restaurant.

Do not drive up directly in front of an address you are responding to. Do not place yourself in the fatal funnel by standing in the doorway.

Consider this; a near ambush is considered contact distance to...read more

The Mental Edge: Hunger for Knowledge

If your 2010 model vehicle was having problems, would you take it to a mechanic whose knowledge base was 10 years old? How about if you were having health problems, would you want to go to a surgeon who hadn’t been to any continuing education programs, read any professional journals, gone to any training seminars or taken the time to educate themselves to the current trends and technologies in medicine? No, of course you wouldn’t. Who would want to hear the doctor in the operating room say, “I’ve never seen this machine before, what does it do?”—just before the anesthesia takes effect.

We understand that with the day-to-day changes in mechanics and advancements in medicine, a professional mechanic or physician must constantly maintain the skills they now have, as well as seek to acquire new abilities. But what about law enforcement professionals? Do you constantly strive to maintain or improve the knowledge (including physical skills and abilities) you already have? Do you study trends and...read more

Sykes Group Training


"You are not paid for what you do, you are paid for what you may have to do, and when that time comes, you will be highly underpaid." - Unknown

See course schedule here

We sleep safely in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would harm us. - George Orwell

Next Executive/VIP Protection course starts September 26th, 2011

Upcoming Security/LE Events Update

Train with the Sykes Group LLC

Failure is not an option!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

M3 Report

The National Association of Former Border Patrol Officers (NAFBPO) extracts and condenses the material that follows from Mexican and Central and South American on-line media sources on a daily basis. You are free to disseminate this information, but we request that you credit NAFBPO as being the provider....learn more

^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^

Copyright - Sykes Group 2011.

Upcoming Courses
Register Now
Course Schedule


Homeland Security Advisory

 


Sykes Group LLC

Join us on Facebook, you can also join us on Myspace and Twitter
Sykes Group LLC
Sykes Group LLC
Law Enforcement/Security Training & Consulting
P.O. BOX 50309
S.I., NY 10305 – USA
1-718-753-3446
info@sykesgroups.com

If this newsletter was forwarded to you by a friend or colleague, click here to sign up for your own copy


PRIVACY POLICY: We respect your privacy 100%. As such, we guarantee we will not rent, sell, loan or otherwise distribute your email address to anyone, ever! Your email address will only be used to send you the email version of the Sykes Group LLC Protective Services Newsletter and updates when neccessary.


If you change your email address please don't forget to unsubscribe the old one and subscribe the new one Here