Listening to a Podcast from Officer.com this morning while sipping my caffeine this one really struck a chord in reference to seriousness and vigilance in how we instruct here at E.A.S.T. Group. Of many things they were discussing, they touched briefly on the recent training accident that killed an Ohio corrections officer.
Yes, we run things tight, yes at times we must yell, yes, we want your focus to be on the tasks at hand, but why? Complacency not only at the instructor level, but at the student level can have fatal consequences. Some of our students don’t understand the importance of this, but in a world of distractions we are very vigilant at how our training facility operates. Sometimes that may come off wrong at the moment, but the issue is addressed and followed up with an explanation.
What does that mean in what you see here within our gates?
• Safety briefing / instructions / clear expectations. We don’t pencil whip it and we don’t defer to a safety video.
• Every exercise, every stage, every part of the day or night we look at “how could someone screw this up”, how could this go wrong, and risks that can’t be mitigated are clearly conveyed to instructors and RSO.
• Assessment drills where needed.
• No talking and side conversations on the line when we’re working and instructing
• Requirement of electronic hearing protection to be able to clearly hear instructors and information during the course of fire
• Medically trained staff with med kits throughout the facility
• In depth safety plan to address problems that could occur
• After action meeting amongst instructors to discuss students and how the class went
• Purpose built range from the ground up for firearms instruction. From sound abatement, high berms, materials for targets and props, safety barriers, and much more.
As Sly would say, “there is no reset button,” once that round is fired, there is no way to take it back and I’m sorry won’t fix what has been done at that point. You get one chance to get things right either here in training or out in the real world.
We run it this way because lives are on the line, here or abroad makes no difference.
