Patrol Procedures Basic – WA Commission Training

Learning Objectives

  • Understand concepts related to:

    • Law Enforcement Training and Community Safety Act

    • Schema

    • OODA Loop

    • 5 Principles

Key Concepts

Schema

  • Schema build mental models to organize and categorize knowledge about people, objects, and events; based on experiences.

  • What schemas allow us to do (from the slides):

    • Organize and categorize

    • Assess and predict

    • Make quick decisions

    • Develop a mental framework based on our experiences with people, objects and events

  • Schema building prompts:

    • How much conscious thought does it take to drive your car?

    • How many hours have you spent driving a car in your life?

    • What will you be doing during your time at this academy?

  • How schemas benefit us:

    • Enable quick interpretation of situations and rapid decision-making

    • Help develop a framework for understanding encounters

  • How schemas can be problematic:

    • Potential biases and misinterpretations that can lead to faulty judgments

OODA Loop

  • OODA stands for Observe, Orient, Decide, and (commonly) Act; the slide emphasizes Observe, Orient, Decide.

  • Relationship to schemas:

    • Schema facilitates Recognition-Primed Decision (RPD) model

    • RPD facilitates OODA processing

  • Key concept:

    • The faster you can orient yourself based on what you observe, the faster you can decide how to act

Recognition-Primed Decision (RPD) and Decision Making

  • RPD model is referenced as a mechanism by which officers draw from prior experiences to recognize a known situation and act quickly without evaluating every option.

  • Comparison prompts in the slides include: recognition of known situations, mental modeling of available options, and choosing the first appropriate action

The 5 Principles (Principle-Based Tactics)

  • The five principles anchor decision-making and actions in the field:

1) Legal Authority

  • You need legal authority to be where you are and to do what you are doing

2) Threat Management

  • Identification, Prioritization, Mitigation

  • Is de-escalation safe and feasible?

3) Position and Movement

  • Where should you be standing?

  • Where should you move?

  • Why should you move?

4) Communication

  • What do you need to communicate?

  • Why do you need to communicate?

  • How do you communicate?

  • Who do you communicate with?

  • When do you need to communicate?

  • Who does the communicating?

  • Where do you need to communicate?

5) Equipment Management

  • Where is your equipment?

  • When/why do you use your equipment?

  • What equipment do you need?

  • How do you use your equipment?

Law Enforcement Training and Community Safety Act (LETCSA) – WAC 139-11-020

  • Intent: The act aims to make communities safer by requiring law enforcement officers to obtain violence de-escalation and mental health training so officers have greater skills to resolve conflicts without the use of physical or deadly force.

  • Statutory reference: WAC 139-11-020 – Requirements of training for law enforcement

  • Critical acknowledgement:

    • Police culture is part of broader culture, and training must proactively address law enforcement and its intersection with marginalized communities to contribute to better outcomes

Initial training requirements

  • (1) Beginning December 7, 2019, all new general authority peace officers must complete a minimum of two hundred hours of initial violence de-escalation and mental health training in the Basic Law Enforcement Academy (BLEA).

  • The training will include the following topics (per WAC 139-11-020):

    • (a) Patrol tactics, actions and communication methods that de-escalate situations when appropriate to reduce the likelihood of injury to all parties involved, avoid unnecessarily escalating situations that may lead to violence, and avoid unnecessarily placing officers in situations that require or lead to deadly force by:

    • (i) Managing the distance between the officer and the persons involved;

    • (ii) Utilizing shielding to protect the officer and others from a threat;

    • (iii) Managing the pace of an interaction; and

    • (iv) Engaging in communication to increase options for resolving the incident and reduce the likelihood of injury to all parties involved.

  • Additional context from the act emphasizes the need to address marginalized communities and to build outcomes that reduce reliance on force

  • The BLEA hours are intended to ensure officers are trained in violence de-escalation and mental health concepts before or during early service

Prompts and Case Considerations in Patrol Scenarios

  • There are repeated prompts used during training to guide decision-making:

    • What were the officers trying to do? What was the plan? Was de-escalation safe and feasible? Was force necessary?

    • What equipment was available and used? Were the officers legally allowed to be there? What threats were the officers facing? Who was positioned where and why? How did communications affect the outcome?

    • What decisions need to be made? How do you decide what to do?

  • Example scenario prompts:

    • You are walking back to your car after a call; a subject is inside an apartment with a rottweiler; what do you do?

    • Prompts referencing times and body camera data (e.g., AXON BODY 2 timestamps) illustrate real-world observation and decision-making under pressure

Practical Scenarios and Observations

  • Case prompt: The subject is inside the apartment; a rottweiler is carried by the subject; officers must decide de-escalation vs. safety; communication, positioning, and control of distance are critical

  • Prompts such as “What do you do?” appear repeatedly with time stamps (e.g., 7:06 to 11:00) to encourage stepwise reasoning

  • Observational cues and situational awareness feed into the OODA loop and RPD processes

Practical Reflections and Best Practices

  • The faster you can orient yourself using observed information, the quicker you can decide and act

  • Schema helps in rapid decision-making but must be monitored to avoid bias and faulty judgments

  • Recognize-Prime Decision (RPD) relies on matching the current situation to prior experiences, enabling rapid action when time is critical

  • Principle-based tactics require balancing legal authority, de-escalation, positioning, communication, and equipment use to optimize safety and outcomes

Training Ethics and Procedures

  • If you receive conflicting information from an instructor, it is your responsibility to address that with your Tactical Advisory Committee (TAC)

  • Officers and cadets should discuss unclear points with TAC; training staff cannot answer questions or address issues they are not aware of

  • The aim of training is to maximize learning opportunities, build schemas, and enable faster, better decisions

  • At the end of the academy, you will pick a patrol partner; your reputation begins here and should reflect your training and conduct

Final Review Questions

  • What is the intent of LETCSA?

  • What is schema?

  • What is the OODA loop?

  • What are the 5 principles?

Quick Reference Figures and Timings (from the slides)

  • Duty-related time metrics:

    • Police officer safe draw and fire: 2 s2\ \text{s} from holster

    • Suspect draw and fire: 0.25 s0.25\ \text{s}

  • Observational loop: Observe → Orient → Decide (OODA Loop)

  • The 200-hour requirement is expressed as a fixed initial training commitment in BLEA

Appendix: Key Terms

  • LETCSA: Law Enforcement Training and Community Safety Act

  • BLEA: Basic Law Enforcement Academy

  • OODA Loop: Observe, Orient, Decide, (Act)

  • RPD: Recognition-Primed Decision

  • WAC 139-11-020: Washington Administrative Code detailing training requirements for law enforcement

  • 200 hours: Minimum hours for initial violence de-escalation and mental health training for new officers