THE WILL TO SURVIVE
Shots are fired! One offender is down, and three police officers are wounded. Another armed offender appears in the doorway, and two of the officers, stunned at the sight of their wounds, are unable to defend themselves. But, the third officer fights on, firing until the second subject is incapacitated.
This
scenario could be an excerpt from a movie, but unfortunately, it is all too
real. Each day, law enforcement officers across the Nation face life-and-death
situations.
Can law enforcement
officers encounter a life-threatening, violent confrontation and go home at the
end of the day? Do they have the will to survive and fight on when faced with
death? The answers to these questions go beyond combat tactics and accuracy
with a weapon. One element is still missing: Survivability--the mental
preparation and personal will to survive.In 1991 the Operations Resource and Assessment Unit (ORAU) at the FBI Academy, Quantico, Virginia, USA, conducted a pilot study and sought expert opinions in order to identify the human attributes associated with survivability. This article will discuss the available background research and will review the FBI's findings.
BACKGROUND
RESEARCH
In the
media, astronauts and pilots have often been referred to as having "the
right stuff"--personality characteristics that would aid their survival in
critical situations. In fact, as part of their ongoing research, the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the University of Texas attempted
to identify "right stuff" personality traits in pilot
selection. As a result, the following two prominent personality orientations
were linked with successful pilot behaviour under dangerous flying conditions:
(1)
Goal-oriented behaviour, and (2) the capacity to empathize with others.
Combat
psychiatry also offers insight into human performance under battle conditions.
Research in this area has examined the causes and prevention of combat stress
reaction (CSR) in relation to surviving life-threatening circumstances. CSR,
sometimes referred to as "battle fatigue" prevents soldiers
from fighting and may be theoretically viewed as behaviour that opposes
survival.
Further
research identified leadership, devotion to duty, decisiveness, and
perseverance under stress as significant attributes. And, in his studies into
the area of survivability, S.E. Hobfol states, "...counting your losses
when preserving resources is fatal....". In essence, preoccupation
with thoughts about loss may negatively affect one's capacity to survive a
possibly lethal confrontation. Thus, merely avoiding thoughts associated with
loss may enhance survivability.
This
concept of preserving resources can be exemplified best through the comments of
Gunnery Sergeant Carlos Hathcock, U.S. Marine Corps (Retired). Hathcock is
credited with 93 confirmed kills as a sniper during two combat tours in South
Vietnam.
A
soft-spoken, unassuming man of honour, Hathcock compared his behaviour just
prior to and during an operation as isolating himself into an "invisible
bubble". This state of mind would "block thoughts of
physiological needs, home, family, etc., except the target". The
amount of time in the "bubble," lasting from a few hours to
several consecutive days, depended not only on the circumstances surrounding his
objective but also on adjusting to conditions where a trivial mistake could
cost him his life. As he reflected on his distinguished military career,
Hathcock also mentioned a number of other attributes he considered necessary
for survival. Among these were patience, discipline, and the ability to
concentrate completely on a specific task.
THEORY
Cognitive/behavioural
psychological theory offers insight into the benefits of mentally rehearsing
possible reactions to life-threatening situations. According to one theory,
developing a plan of action could enhance one's perception of effectiveness,
and therefore, affect an officer's ability to survive. In fact, as A. Bandura
states:
"People
who believe they can exercise control over potential threats do not conjure up
apprehensive cognitions and, therefore, are not perturbed by them....those who
believe they cannot manage potential threats experience high levels of stress
and anxiety arousal. They tend to dwell on their coping deficiencies and view
many aspects of their environment as fraught with danger. Through some
inefficacious thought they distress themselves and constrain and impair their
level of functioning".
A classic
example of cognitive rehearsal in law enforcement is provided by C.R. Skillen.
According to Skillen, successful patrol officers imagine the best approach to
emergencies that could occur during a tour of duty. They then decide upon the
best and fastest route from one location to another, should the need arise.
These Officers also imagine "what if" situations and develop
effective responses in case a similar confrontation occurs.
This type
of cognitive rehearsal activity has proven to be effective in relieving fears
and in enhancing performance in stressful encounters. However, mental preparation
can work against officers who believe that if shot, they will certainly die.
When reinforced by appropriate training and one's value system, these
attributes and behaviours may provide a law enforcement officer with the
ability to survive a life-threatening situation.
FBI'S
RESEARCH AND PRELIMINARY FINDINGS
Behaviour
identified in the background research and theoretically linked to survivability
was later summarized to develop a pilot study questionnaire. The FBI then
distributed this questionnaire in late 1989 and early 1990 to a broad group of
Federal, State, and local law enforcement officers attending the FBI Academy in
Quantico, Virginia, USA. The questionnaire was also administered at work or
training sites in Illinois and California. In all, a total of 207
questionnaires were administered and completed.
QUESTIONNAIRE
The
questionnaire asked respondents to rank various behaviours and traits,
developed from background research. Not all the behaviours and traits are
associated with law enforcement, but everyone has been linked to survival.
Ranking ranged from little or no importance to extremely important. Law
enforcement officers rated each factor in terms of its overall importance for
effective performance in a short-term, violent law enforcement confrontation.
Effective performance was defined as a violent confrontation that requires a
lawful, combative response where the officer continued to function even though
the final outcome could be death for the officer or adversary.
FINDINGS
Analyses
of the pilot study data revealed the items listed below as those perceived to
be most critical to officer survival. The items appear in order of importance,
except for items (3) through (5), which are of equal value.
(1)
Self-confidence in performance--The officer's belief that a critical task can
be performed effectively with a high probability of success.
(2)
Training--The officer's belief that prior training has been effective, and if
applied, will increase the possibility of survival in deadly confrontations.
(3)
Effectiveness in combat--The officer's mental frame of reference in which the
officer can visualize victory in a deadly confrontation.
(4)
Decisiveness--The Officer's ability to make rapid and accurate decisions when
confronted with a critical situation.
(5)
Perseverance under stress--The officer's ability to continue to perform
critical tasks mentally and physically when confronted with stressful
situations.
PSYCHOLOGY
OF CONFRONTATION
There was
a popular country song that talked about being a lover, not a fighter. And I
think that's true for most people, including Police Officers. No one wants to
hurt anybody. Police become hardened to street values over time, but it's not
human nature.
Yet, the
Police are told they have the authority and responsibility to do whatever is
necessary to protect and to serve our citizenry.
During
wartime, a soldier's mind is conditioned to hate the enemy. He's the one who
gassed our men in the trenches, sank the hospital ships, torpedoed the ferry in
Sydney harbour, blitzed Poland, bombed Pearl Harbor, crossed the 49th Parallel,
and invaded those nice people in South Viet Nam.He set up concentration camps
and death camps to slaughter the Jews, raped the women, killed the children,
tortured prisoners, and committed all kinds of atrocities for which he deserves
to DIE. But the soldier is either at home in a rear echelon or he's in the
battlefield. He cant be in both at the same time. But for the policeman, the
rear echelon is the battlefield.
You might
pull over the little old lady who ran a red light and a few minutes later face
a terrorist group robbing a bank with automatic weapons. The policeman is one
minute a father figure and the next an "exterminator". What does that
do to a cop's head? Andrew Casavant of the Midwest Tactical Training Institute
in the USA has pondered this question, queried qualified psychiatrists and
psychologists, let me share with you his consensus.
Mental
perspective are critical to your surviving any confrontation. And these mental
attitudes must be habitual, instinctive. All the physical skills in the world
will be fruitless if your head is in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Physical skills alone do not insure success.
There are
a host of elements that insure your success in a confrontation, beyond the
simple attributes of ability, power, speed, strength, balance, and reaction
time. These elements are to be found in your mind. Merely knowing remembering,
or attempting defensive control techniques will neither defuse an assault nor
guarantee your personal protection. Mental conditioning is as necessary as the
physical involvement.
According
to Casavant. Violent confrontations require the participants to be involved
both physically and mentally. You must react with both mind and body if you are
to be effective. Without the mental involvement, the physical technique is less
effective, or totally useless. If you aren't mentally prepared, you are as
useless as the little old lady who knows nothing will ever happen to her.
Mental
preparedness, mental conditioning, the mental trigger, it has been called many
things. But what does it mean? The mentality that one needs to survive must
begin at an early time and continue throughout training until the thoughts and
subsequent actions become habitual even in combat.
How do
you develop this mentality and maintain it? Of what importance is it in
confrontational situation? Casavant's theory is that before you can become
physically skilful in defensive control techniques, there must be a transition
from "what was" to "what is".
"What
was" is how
one views his past experience and perspectives on use of force in dealing with
physical assaults. Before you became a cop, your life experiences were hardly
aggressive. Now, those experiences interfere with your new role as a law
enforcer.
"What
is" reflects
the environment in which you now operate. The Marquis of Queensberry rules
don't matter any more. There's no referee to count to ten. No umpire to confirm
that was a strike. There isn't even a union arbitrator to negotiate your
grievances. Once you accept the fact that no one is there to call the shots, to
help out, you are well on the way to understanding what mental awareness is,
and how it can enhance your physical skills. Even if help is by your side, they
likely won't or cant do what needs to be done. You've got to take care of
Number One: yourself.
What
mentality is needed to insure your survival? Casavant has organised these
attitudes in terms of what you face on the street.
ALERTNESS
Alertness
is the overriding theme. If you're not ready when it's time to act, your skills
won't help. Presume that you can and probably will be assaulted. You
immediately assess the threat. That's part of awareness, an awareness of where
you are in relation to all things in your environment.
It's a
fact that most people are unaware of their surroundings. Why should you be any
different? Yes, training and experience prepares you. That can give you an
edge. But only if you recognise what you are up against. Jeff Cooper, a
well-known combat shooting instructor in the United States came up with a
colour code scheme that police trainers have adopted with fervour.
Colour
Codes
1. WHITE:
When you are home watching television, sleep-walking, totally unaware of your
surroundings. Unfortunately, this is where most of the population spends its
time. This is having the "victim" mentality, Casavant says; the
"I cant believe it's happening to me" syndrome.
2.
YELLOW: Now you are aware of your surroundings. You are relaxed but alert. You
anticipate, rather than expect, something to happen. You are simply prepared.
3.
ORANGE: Now you are aware of something specific in your surroundings that has
caught your attention. Perhaps it will be a threat. You analyse the threat
potential and potential risks to you and others.
4. RED:
You are ready to do what needs to be done. You may decide to move in or back
off, depending on the circumstance. But do you have a plan? If you don't,
you'll probably lose, unless Lady Luck is sitting in your corner. If you do,
your reaction will be quick and sure.
5. BLACK:
You've got no choice. An assault is in progress. If you aren't mentally
prepared, you PANIC. You must go from White (totally unaware) to Black (he
shoots) in a fraction of a second. If you haven't followed the crucial
self-training of always anticipating an attack, you add to the sad statistics.
With anticipation comes preparedness. It is critical to your survival that your
own attitude is to be prepared when your wildest anticipation comes true.
DECISIVENESS
Once you
commit to a reaction to a threat, be decisive about it, Casavant says.
Hesitation, when the situation calls for action, can be fatal. A mind cluttered
with liability issues, department policies, and other such diversions, will
cause hesitation when you need to ACT. Make up your mind about those "what
if" things beforehand, so that your decision is already made when the
situation arises. When you are called upon to act, you can. When the compliant "yes"
person turns into a "maybe", then resists, he's a "no"
person. You have to do something. Whatever you decide to do, DO IT.
AGGRESSIVENESS
You've
decided to do it. so do it like you mean it. Be aggressive. You decide on a
course of action-to apply a pain compliance technique, to use enough force to
make it work. If you draw your baton, USE IT, hard-and properly. Don't
pussyfoot around. End the confrontation with whatever force is necessary, as
quickly as you can. This minimises the risks to all involved. But
"aggressiveness" must be taught. It's not our human nature. And
certainly not the nature of smaller statued male or petite female officers. You
must learn to be assertive. That's part of defensive tactics training.
To
execute any defensive tactics technique, to gain the advantage of surprise, you
must act quickly. Speed is essential. First, speed of thought. Don't stop to
ask yourself if he really meant to swing that lead pipe at you. Quick thinking
is as important as quick hands or feet. Without speed of thought actions are
simply movements with no direction.
CALMNESS
Remaining
cool and calm in any confrontation, both mentally and physically, is paramount
to success. Through realistic training, you must learn to control your emotions
through such sound physiological principles as adrenalin flow and respiration.
When you are involved in defending yourself or others, the seriousness of the
situation is under your control. If you can decide a confrontation quickly and
without injury, you minimise the seriousness of the attack. Controlling
yourself lets you control the situation before it gets out of hand or controls
you.
RUTHLESSNESS
While it
seems harsh, ruthlessness has a place in describing the mentality of a
conflict. Ruthless means that we will win, and we will do whatever it takes to
win, and survive. We will continue to fight, even if hurt, and we will never
give up. When the situation calls for it, we will get "junkyard dog
mean".
Ruthlessness
is a state of mind that must be short lived. If you cant let go after the need
for force is past, you're being brutal. Being ruthless. when you must be
ruthless, gives you the spirit for combat.
SURPRISE
If you
strike when least expected take your assailant down without warning, you gain
the element of surprise. And that makes your technique even more effective.
PERSPECTIVE
ON DEFENCE
The
psychology of personal protection is neither sensational nor lackadaisical. It
is as intense and as serious as your motivation for professionalism. it does
not lie in peer attitudes or department requirements (if any). The
responsibility is yours. Only you will determine your ability to respond to a
threat. If you achieve the tactical transition of mind and body, of skill and
psyche, you will succeed. You will survive. Your desire to learn will determine
your capacity for learning. If the class you attend is a
"requirement", you might not get much out of it. If you recognise
that the class may help you get home to your wife after work, you will benefit.
Do you want to win and survive? Training is a small price to pay to develop the
skills and habits that enable you to win and survive. The old adage that you will
do under stress what you've trained to do is really not quite correct. You will
probably perform much worse in a serious confrontation than you ever did in
training. So, to survive a street confrontation, you need to continually
exercise the skills you learned in class. And you can do it in your head.
MENTAL
EXERCISES
Suppose
that little old lady were to swing her umbrella at your head. What would you
do? Imagine yourself doing what you need to do to parry her blow. Suppose
someone leaped out from the dark corner with a gun in his hand. What would you
do? Draw and shoot? Or dive for cover? and where is the cover?
If you
can actually see yourself going through the motions of your newly learned
techniques, it will improve your ability to respond quickly. While there's no
substitute for good, hard, comprehensive physical practice, you still need the
mental conditioning to enhance your response and keep you alert in more mundane
circumstances.
Mental
conditioning requires you to practice in as realistic a situation as possible.
Draw on your own experience, or that of others, as scenarios for mental
exercises.
The one
emotion you can t conceive is the one that makes the greatest difference in a
real threat FEAR. Unlike fights on television, real confrontations aren't
logical, patterned, give-and-take brawls. They are a flurry of hitting and
screaming, kicking and shoving. You must mentally train for the attack that is
certain to be sudden, vicious, and perhaps overwhelming.
KINDS OF
REACTIONS
Confrontational
opponents can be categorised by their way of thinking. So can we. The bully is
mechanical. He intimidates by brute strength. But the guy who thinks about what
he's doing is intellectual. He's unpredictable. When someone grabs the gun on
your right hip, handgun retention might teach you to secure the gun in the
holster with your left hand, cock your right arm and CHOP to the rear as you
turn to the right. That gets the offender's hand off your gun fast.
However
you could turn to the left instead, the grabber's hand would have forced the
trigger guard back under the shroud retaining the gun, as the Officer's left
forearm delivered a blow to the offender's head. Now I'm not saying one
procedure is better than the other. Both can be correct. The one that works is
the right one. While you must repeat the mechanical routines time and again to
make them habitual, you must never hesitate to change your strategy to
accommodate the situation. Situations aren't scripted, they develop minute to
minute, in an infinite variety. If you practised parrying the pipe swung by a
right hander, you'd better be flexible enough to switch if the offender is left
handed.
PLAN
When a
situation first presents itself, your mental conditioning is anticipating the
subject's first move and planning a countermove by positioning, blocking, or
attacking. Your mind runs like a machine gun, thinking of all the possible
moves he might make and how you would respond. But what do you do next?
Focusing
on the most probable attack he might make, you counter; and then you should be
thinking two or three steps ahead so you have an alternative, should your first
attempt fail.
The
prevailing mentality today is much as it is portrayed in cowboy movies. The
marshal waits for the bad guy to draw first. We wait to be attacked before we
can defend. If this person is challenging us and threatens a grievous assault,
why wait? Surprise him. Gain the initiative and prevent his assault. It might
convince him his challenge was a bad idea. If it doesn't, you've got him at a
disadvantage. You've taken the initiative away from him. You've let him know
that you have the advantage. Make him realise the risk to HIM of pursuing his
aggressive behaviour. Human behaviourists call it "risk aversion".
When someone recognises the high risk of doing something, he avoids doing it.
OBJECTIVE
The
objective of all this is for you to realise that violent confrontations and
personal defence can involve more than just the physical element. You need a
mental awareness of every aspect. Training, applied successfully in real life,
builds confidence and confidence enhances your ability to handle whatever
challenge is put to you by an adversary.
DISCUSSION
The
concept of survivability represents a dynamic set of behaviours that should be
considered in relation to certain law enforcement environments.
Life-threatening events associated with uniformed patrol, undercover
operations, SPG operations, hostage response and other specific hazardous law
enforcement missions, require personnel who can survive the virulent stressors
associated with these unique operations.
Self-confidence
in performance, training, effectiveness in combat, decisiveness, and
perseverance under stress were identified in this pilot study as tantamount to
law enforcement officer survival. Officers should be offered the chance to
undertake further training focusing on the five behaviours mentioned previously
that are most often associated with survivability. It is hoped that law
enforcement officers who have been exposed to such training opportunities will
increase their potential for survival in life-or-death situations. Only through
proper training in behaviours that ensure survival can law enforcement prepare
to meet the anticipated occupational challenges of the future.
Part of
the Departments responsibilities can also be addressed by ensuring all Officers
have confidence in their equipment (firearms) and suitable training to go with
along with it.
Published
in the NSW Police Journal (Australia)
Author; Michael KAY