The Illinois Model

It wasn't until I read my second book about US Air Force Colonel John Boyd's research and study that I came to appreciate both the simplicity  and complexity  of his work. At the same time, I realized I had previously been duped by those who first explained a  highly  over-condensed version of Boyd's Observe-Orient-Decide-Act cycle. This blog begins  my  apology to my students for wasting their time with fruitless explanations of glass cockpit canopies. It would be quite difficult to find a police officer in America who hasn't at least heard of the "OODA Loop." The story is probably much of the same: an Air Force trainer John Boyd taught his pilots about the decision-making cycle of Observation, Orientation, Decision, and Action. In aerial  dogfights, the pilot who more quickly cycles through the repeated phases of the OODA Loop wins! In polici ng, most officers have probably learned of the OODA Loop from a firearm instructor who app...

In one of my inquiries into a sales company’s training philosophy, I asked a close friend, " Do you do any on-the-job training?…in real life situations?"  My friend dismissed the question…." Oh no! We have way too much at stake." Are you kidding me? What stakes? Lose a sale you weren’t guaranteed in the first place? I just shared a police squad car with a kid who still counted the time since his graduation from the police academy in  hours . Driving lights-and-sirens to an emergency with a youngster who wouldn’t be ready for this job for several months yet. Don’t tell me about high stakes. But…of all my complaints of police work, we definitely kick ass at one thing:  Field Training . THE FIELD TRAINING PROGRAM Most police officers in America get hired as a recruit before attending a formal police academy. Upon graduation from the academy, whether right away or after a week or two of in-house training, the  probationary  police office...

Videos of police officers using force. Police incidents involving citizens with mental illnesses. Social media instantaneously spreading opinions and public verdicts. The "no comment" policy in police media relations.  This combination makes it virtually impossible to build community trust and understanding. I am amazed by the growth of four seemingly unrelated aspects affecting my profession: the number of video cameras capturing police officers' actions, the number of police contacts with persons with a mental illness in crisis,  the power and speed of social media and the unreliability of its content, and  the reluctance by police leaders to speak out openly about questionable incidents. Each of these topics has a profound impact in law enforcement operations. But when taken together, it seems as though we in police work are doing everything wrong. While we surely have our bad apples and instances of poor judgment, this is far from the norm...

14 AUG 2014; 6:30pm CST. LH In the last few hours, I have fielded several requests to make comments on the Ferguson Missouri situation. Most of the interest arose from a revitalized post on analyzing the NYPD Glenn Broadnax incident . Here is my highly abbreviated analysis and setup of the situation in Ferguson, from a complete outside perspective. (I recommend reading t he linked post regarding NYPD and Broadnax  so I can limit the length of this post, including my background, training, and experiences.)  The unfolding situation in Ferguson, Missouri, has several layers. Each is related to the next. There is some causality between some layers.  Some layers merely amplify the problems and concerns at the other layers: The pre-shooting relationship between Ferguson Police and the citizens. The shooting incident of Michael Brown by a Ferguson police officer. The police investigation of the shooting of Michael Brown. The public response of the shooting of Michael B...

Students of Stephen Covey or Gordon Graham understand the concepts and relationship between urgency , importance , and frequency .  Whether one's duty is managing a project or minimizing risk, the same three issues are constant factors for effectiveness, efficiency, and ultimately...success. Police officers are risk managers. They mitigate threats to protect property and human life. They write incident reports to defend against claims of injustice. They explain and justify their actions to prevent embarrassment or misunderstanding from the community. They develop policies and procedures to reduce civil liabilities and financial exposure. They train to safely perform dangerous tasks and acts. Police officers recognize risks, and then, they make decisions and take actions to manage those risks. It's a delicate balancing act for police officers to operate in this environment where risk is largely unavoidable and unpreve...

The term Adaptive is gaining popularity, and unfortunately so are the accompanying misuse and misunderstanding of the term. Adaptiveness is a concept that forms the cornerstone of our  The Illinois Model . We take it so seriously that we argue one must accept and understand it to appreciate the rest of our Model.   There is a certain connectivity between  Generalism  and  Adaptiveness . They are not equals. They are not interchangeable. But there is a relatedness. Generalist vs Specialist Generalism is the practice of maintaining a broad set of skills or knowledge. Generalists are decent at everything. They are jacks-of-all-trades. The risk of being a generalist is that one does not "specialize" in any one (or few) topics. Generalists have a pool of training and experience that is broad, but not deep. Conversely, specialists have a narrow skill set, but are expert in that one or few areas. Generalists have an advantage over Specialists in the unkn...

This is a followup to Part One , where I contended the bulk of police training wrongly focused on tactics at the cost of neglecting more critical strategic issues. However, there is only so much a police officer can do to control or influence a situation in the field. Since not everything goes to plan, officers must have the skills and abilities to fix a situation when it goes bad.  While moderating a recent class on Incident Command for supervisory and senior police officers, I asked attendees what aspect of police training was needed most back at their respective police agencies. One student said, " Weapons training...we get into a lot of officer-involved shootings. " I questioned whether some of the shootings could have been avoided had officers implemented more stabilizing strategies. I used the analogy of potty training versus changing one's own diaper . Based on the head nods from other students while I explained my theory, a point was made: maybe some of thes...

While stemming from the best of intentions, American police policy and training for active killer incidents has grown to be too complicated and unworkable. T he three main life-saving functions of police officers in those first minutes  are being lost in binder-thick crisis plans and checklists of non-vital issues.  Before we talk about any sort of police or emergency medical response to active killer or mass-casualty event, we must identify some basic components. These are the most important problems that face emergency responders: killer(s), who may still be actively killing. injured victims, which may include dead ones. other people in the danger area. Not traffic gridlock. Not locked doors. Not missing whiteboard markers. Not congested radio communication. Not plainclothes cops. Not frantic parents. Not threats of explosives. Not "one-size-doesn't-fit-all" ballistic helmets. Not malfunctioning closed-circuit camera feeds. Not horrible weather. Not hoards of ...

In teaching according to our Model , we learned quickly that our initial layout of the Priority of Life was flawed. It served as an excellent jumping off point for philosophic discussions, but the shortcomings had to be addressed. And as such, we made adjustments. My first exposure to the Priority of Life was in the early 2000s, in an active killer response instructor class. It made total and complete sense. Rank people's lives in the following order: Hostages / Innocent Persons Police Officers Suspects / Offenders This principle was the driving force for (what was back then) a revolution in police response to the (then new) phenomenon of the "active shooter." Because the driving force for this training was the increase in mass school killings, the Priority of Life was an easy sell to patrol officers...especially those with young children. The officers should accept risk/danger to themselves in order to save innocent people inside the building at the mercy of t...

Is it more important to be a kick-ass gunfighter? ...or to have the wisdom and understanding on how to stay out of a gunfight in the first place? And on which of these things should police instructors be focusing their efforts? This debate isn't limited to only the use of police deadly force; it's one that permeates law enforcement education and training as a whole. I have two children in diapers. The older one is becoming more and more independent. After 6500+ diaper-changes, he's understanding the operation. So much so, he's now trying to change it himself! As a parent, I thought that was pretty cool and convenient. I even considered some of the "training" I could provide him to expedite the process. Then I came to my senses. A self-diaper-changing toddler might be quite labor-saving. But a teenager in diapers is definitely not attractive (nor cost-effective!). At some point, this kid would have to learn how to not crap his pants. And that time was to be...