Author: Street Cop Training

If I were to ask you to make a list of the major tools of policing today I would bet that your list would likely include a radio, handcuffs, taser/oc spray, body armor, a flashlight— or 4, and of course a gun and a holster. Those last two practically go together as one item. There are some crazy policies out there, but so far every policy I’ve seen has some sort of leather or plastic to hold their pistol. If you know an agency going full Yukon Cornelius, I need photos.

We have another tool that has taken a firm hold in this profession that doesn’t seem to receive the same attention as the pistol— the AR-15. We would be creating tremendous issues for ourselves if we just tried to carry around our pistols without a holster, but we tolerate ineffective slings for our rifles, or even no sling at all. The sling is one of the most overlooked pieces of equipment that we can put on our rifles. I would argue it’s as important, and deserves as much consideration, as the light and optic we mount on the gun. The sling isn’t just a piece of nylon we use as a gun necklace so our rifle doesn’t fall when we let it go. It’s a key part of unlocking all of the functionality of our rifle if we have to deploy it.

The first task of the sling most applicable to policing is control of the rifle when not being actively employed. It should keep it secured to our bodies, stable in its stored position, and conveniently accessible in case it needs to be redeployed. We don’t want our rifle falling on the ground if we have to let it go. It shouldn’t be swinging around knocking us in the knees and “sensitive” areas. And we should be able to grab it intuitively, just like drawing your pistol. It should be where you left it. This disqualifies the single-point sling entirely. I understand, there’s still much love for single points. But unless you and your MP5 are guarding The Crown, single points don’t have a place on fighting rifles. 

You need your sling to be able to keep the muzzle deflected away from things that don’t need guns pointed at them. Dangling freely isn’t an effective way to make that happen.

If you still have a 3-point sling all I can say is leave that extra material back with incandescent flashlights. Our current evolution of 2-point slings is the optimum solution for weapon control, especially with the on-the-fly adjustability that’s become readily available in the last decade. It allows you to keep the muzzle pointed where you want it if you don’t have a hand on the gun. It protects your knees from front sights and flashlights, and it offers a key advantage when firing the rifle— positional stability.

Some of you familiar with sling-supported shooting are probably imagining gentlemen in funny jackets shooting old wood and iron fighting rifles they likely carried in their youth. Slow cadence of fire, extended ranges, and iron sights, the way God intended(so I’m told). Using a sling to increase the stability of the rifle is a long-standing rifleman skill that applies not only to M1 Garands at 600 meters; the modern patrol officer that locks a carbine in their car on duty can take advantage of the same principles that your local high power shooter does.

There are better men than me like Ryan Cleckner and Kyle Lamb, who have chapters dedicated in their books to sling use. I’ll sum up my article simply. A two-point sling is an enabler that comes at a low cost and is readily available. The VTAC, Blue Force Gear GMT, Magpul MS1, and similar two-point slings have been excellent performers. It’s a low-cost investment that will dramatically improve your rifle shooting. Don’t let your rifle be a forgotten piece of equipment. Give it the attention it deserves.

Rural policing is in a world all to itself. Overshadowed by major metropolitan areas that spend the entire shift with calls stacked. Officers move from one call to the next with almost no break and no time for proactive policing. When people think of rural policing, they think of Mayberry and the Dukes of Hazzard. I know I did before I got involved with a rural agency. I did not expect pursuits, counter-drug enforcement, interdiction, and leadership that support a proactive mindset. Move over Barney, the modern rural deputies, and officers of 2022 are out there making a difference. In a big way. I moved to South Dakota thinking I’d be Deputy Fife, boy howdy was I wrong.

Being a rural deputy in the Midwest has changed a lot over the past 10 years. With more and more law enforcement concentrating on interstates, major highways near populated areas, and urban expanses, criminals are adapting. Drug and weapon traffickers are taking to the back roads and rural highways to avoid detection. Human traffickers as well are finding their way off the main roads and into these smaller communities. The same reasons people are leaving the cities to find a more quiet and less expensive life are the same reasons criminals are following.

Now, that is not to say that rural law enforcement is dealing with more and more calls. On the contrary, the call volume for most agencies by comparison is very low. Some agencies can go weeks without more than a couple of calls. This plays right into the stigma that rural cops have it easy and don’t put in a lot of work. There may be some truth to that, but the narrative is changing. Having fewer reactive calls means more opportunities for proactive policing. Rural interdiction is going to be the way forward going into the next decade.

This is where a lot of gaps can be bridged as far as training and experience with rural and metro policing. Rural agencies have the time and resources, but most lack the training. In the not-to-distant past interdiction training is centered around cities and populated areas. This is starting to change. We are now starting to see a large uptick in rural agencies taking proactive steps for better training. More grants exist now than ever before.  There is a lot of opportunities to get involved. Some of these agencies have less than 5 law enforcement officers working in an area that spans thousands of square miles. These agencies are making quality stops that lead to major shipments being seized.

With these seizures, more and more money is being allocated for training, equipment, and technology. This attracts a different kind of officer to seek employment in these areas. The cost of living is low, the wages are high, and the community support is astounding. The people love seeing law enforcement putting vehicles on the shoulder and taking money and resources from criminals. In a time when our profession is seen to be a stain on society, the people here love what we do. That is a benefit that cannot be put into monetary terms.

I moved to North-Central South Dakota to be Barney. I thought it would be laid back, easy, and not much of a challenge. I thought it would be a good way to see if being a cop was something I wanted to do. I am now part of a Multi-jurisdictional Criminal Enforcement team. I have constant opportunities to learn and train in interdiction and proactive policing. My leadership supports the mission of proactive policing. They go out of their way to ensure we have the tools, time, and training to make it happen. Our courts and the community support what we are doing.

Rural policing is the future and the future is bright.

There’s a simple method to “turn on the lights” in any room without having to find the light switch. It’s called reflective lighting, and it can greatly improve your building searches. Reflective light occurs when a light source is pointed at any light-colored surface such as a bounce board or reflector. When the light bounces off the surface, it causes a larger spill than its original source, filling in dark shadows and creating an even flow of light. It can be used in conjunction with slicing the pie as well as dynamic entry.

Utilizing reflective light is simple, and here’s how we can use it to take advantage of our often-unknown environment on the job. The color of the ceiling is white in the majority of rooms we enter. We can use that as an advantage in a similar way to how photographers reflect light. One of the most common things you’ll see in a photographer’s kit is a reflector. A white ceiling or wall can serve as a reflector to bounce a wide spill of light that fills the room. Rather than pointing our light sporadically all over the room, we can point it up and get an effect similar to turning the lights on. We can now overcome our tunnel-vision barrier of following our beam’s hot spot and begin to identify movement.

Once you pick up movement or a person, you now have the option of continuing to monitor the whole room with reflective light, or threat-focusing our light directly on the subject in question. You can still pie a room, then move to reflective light to better receive the new space and watch for threats. 

Tunnel vision can be a real problem with traditional scanning. Our eyes like to follow lasers, and just like the laser, our eyes will submit to tunnel vision with the flashlight beam. It’s also harder to ID movement while your light itself is moving. You can even create false movement by shifting shadows of objects in the room.  This creates a lot of extra information for your mind to sort through. Reflective light allows us to gather a lot more information without constantly reshaping the environment.

Reflective light doesn’t stop at handheld flashlights. There are products designed to assist you with reflective light like the Thyrm Variarc™. The Variarc allows you to angle your ballistic helmet light upward and get reflective light pouring all over the room with white light and IR illuminators.

If you’re new to reflective light, give it a try. Let us know how you feel about the technique in the comments.

 On April 4th, 2022, Patrick Lyoya was stopped by police. His license plate did not match the vehicle he was driving. To us in law enforcement, this puts us on alert. Not everyone understands why so let me break it down as best that I can. There are many reasons why plates may not match, and most of them are not honest mistakes. Instead, they are criminal violations, such as a stolen vehicle. So to find out why we need to make a stop and ask questions. Lyoya’s stop was for this reason.

When the police stop you, most people stay in their vehicle. It makes us very nervous when someone steps out of their car without us asking them to do so. Maybe they are going to run? Perhaps they are going to attack us with a weapon? I have had people exit the vehicle for various reasons, and honestly, none of them were with ill intent. I told them to please stay in the car, and they returned with no problem. Lyoya exited the vehicle and did not listen to the officer’s request to return to his car. Lyoya instead shut the car door and walked in the officer’s direction.

Folks are generally not happy to be stopped, and I empathize with that. Most people ask what’s the reason for the stop, so we tell them. We ask for a driver’s license, registration, and proof of insurance. Some are grumpy, some are nervous, and others are apologetic. But they hand over their license. Lyoya said his driver’s license was in his vehicle. The officer told him to get his license, but what did Lyoya do? He opened the door, spoke to a passenger, shut the door, and started to walk away. The officer told him to stop and place his hands behind his back. What did Lyoya do? He shoved the officer and tried to run away.

So we have a vehicle with illegal plates. The driver refuses to identify himself and is not following instructions given to him by law enforcement. Lyoya is using force to escape the investigative detention by shoving the officer. The driver attempts to flee the scene and escape the lawful stop by running away. None of which are what reasonable people do during a vehicle stop.

The officer then uses force to try and get control over Lyoya. Let me be blunt; force is not pretty. Force is downright ugly. As the officer attempts to gain control over Lyoya, he gives instructions. Lyoya locks his arms and refuses to comply. It may not be hitting but Lyoya is using force. The officer delivers a few knee strikes to Lyoya to get compliance. Most people do not run from a vehicle stop. They instead want to avoid conflict. Generally speaking people want to get the stop over with and either deal with a fine or a warning.. Lyoya was not like most people.

While the officer was attempting to gain control over Lyoya, he gave clear instructions. Lyoya responded, “Okay,” but he did not follow the officer’s instructions. Saying “okay” while still actively resisting the officer is not complying. Now bystanders begin closing in on the officer’s location. The officer is alone. He is struggling with a suspect, and people are approaching him. He has to take control of the suspect. The officer puts his entire body weight on Lyoya to gain control. Lyoya does a pushup like the officer is not even there, ignoring the officer’s instructions. Lyoya stands up. The officer tries to get Lyoya to put his arms behind his back for handcuffing. Lyoya verbalizes that he is following commands, yet his arms are pulling forward, and he is still actively resisting and trying to escape the officer.

Lyoya breaks free of the now exhausted officer. The officer draws his taser and deploys it, and it does not work. Lyoya instead tries to take the taser from the officer. The officer tells Lyoya to let go of the taser. Lyoya refuses. Out of breath and still struggling to control Lyoya, the officer is out of options. If he loses control over the taser, the once unarmed Lyoya becomes armed. The officer draws his weapon and tells Lyoya a final time to drop the taser; Lyoya refuses, and as a result, the officer had no other choice.

Lyoya dictated everything that happened after he was stopped. The officer was reacting and responding to Lyoya’s actions. Unfortunately, Lyoya made poor decisions and chose violence. The officer had every right to defend himself and keep himself safe. Out of thousands of contacts made by law enforcement officers each day, this is not what most people do

Being a law enforcement officer means knowing your equipment inside and out. The more experience and training you have, the more you learn what you need. We need primary tools to protect ourselves, such as our vest and other PPE (Personal Protective Equipment). We have communication devices, defensive tools, weapons, and the trusty pocket knife. In addition, we have multi-tools as well as other gadgets that would make Batman envious. So here are some unconventional tools that officers should consider having in their patrol vehicle or go-bag.

Dog Biscuits – You will encounter a pooch or two throughout your career. I would wager that most dogs are friendly. They want attention from the new human that just walked into their lives. So having a few dogs treats handy to give out to friendly dogs makes you seem like a good and genuine person. You are not only building rapport with the dog; you are establishing credibility with everyone around you. Some people form strong opinions over how people treat animals.

Of course, not every pup encounter will go well. Sometimes we encounter dogs that are aggressive, scared, injured, or simply unpleasant. I was recently dispatched to a welfare check on an older Marine veteran. He had a dog named Ace, and Ace was like something out of a cartoon. He barked, snarled, and stared at me with his one good eye. Ace’s other eye looked like it was right out of the Edgar Allen Poe story, “The Tell-Tale Heart.” His personality was as charming as Cujo. You get the idea. Ace is the sort of dog you don’t turn your back on. Lucky for me, I keep dog biscuits in a pocket on my vest. Medical was able to enter the scene, the Marine got the care he needed, and I made a new friend.

Moist Towelettes – Even before Covid’s fears swept the nation, it has always been a good practice to keep Wet Naps or Wet Ones in your kit. Constantly we are put into situations where we have to touch and be around gross things and people. I am sure we ALL always remember to glove up when we need to (sarcasm) so let’s focus on other applications of these lifesavers. /having the ability to wipe down equipment, your uniform, and boots after a particularly nasty situation keeps you looking professional. It also helps prevent infectious diseases spread by blood-borne pathogens and other bodily fluids.
There is a good community policing aspect to using moist towelettes; Being able to offer someone the means to clean themselves goes a long way. It helps restore dignity and shows that you respect them as an individual. I remember dealing with a young man in crisis that others in my agency had dealt with before. It was summertime, and he had been walking along a county road all night and well into the morning. I stopped and started to speak with him, offering him water and a few Wet Ones. I still run into him from time to time, and he remembers that encounter.

Water Bottles – Of course, water bottles are suitable for us to keep hydrated. They serve the public as well when we deal with them. It costs very little to throw a case of water into your vehicle, and it is well worth the return on the investment. I offer water to almost everyone I encounter. Good, bad, or indifferent. There is the apparent hydration aspect. A water bottle can go a long way in getting some mutual respect. Offering someone the means to rinse off their hands or face or give them a cool drink on a summer day can turn the tide for an officer. If you still insist on carrying OC spray and don’t carry water in your vehicle, are you even a human being?


Cigarettes – I know that it’s 2022, and everyone is fully aware of the dangers and health risks. However, a good chunk of the people we deal with smoke. I know quite a few officers that smoke as well. It is a habit that I once partook in, but have since kicked. I do still keep smokes in my vehicle. I know most smokers you encounter, good or bad, will have their own. Offering one of your own to them will go a long way in building rapport. It also serves to slow people down. It’s not necessarily the cigarette itself. They are slowing down their breathing to inhale and exhale the smoke. Approach this case-by-case and follow your policies. I just know having a pack on hand has helped diffuse enough situations that I see value in having them around.

I was dealing with a man that had trouble keeping his hands to himself during an argument with his spouse. I offered him water, and he told me to go self-fornicate. It was blistering hot outside, and he had none of what I was saying. He wanted to fight. He knew what was going to happen. I knew what was going to happen. Even the neighbors knew what was going to happen. So I offered him a cigarette. He took a deep breath, his posture changed from hostile to docile, and he licked his now drier than the Sahara lips. “Ya, and can I get that water too?” He went calmly into handcuffs and in the back of my vehicle.