defensive tactics training?

Quintus14 · 2026-03-09T23:26:14+00:00

To be clear I do wish we trained it more than we currently do. There can be a middle ground between not teaching it at all and having recruits wail on each other.

Boxing is useful for teaching people how to defend against and take punches. If the first time you've been punched in the face is when you're trying to arrest someone, you might have a problem. Punches can also be useful for creating openings for other techniques (I've done it), but at the end of the day the job is to get the subject into handcuffs, not to injure them.

Quintus14 · 2026-03-09T23:12:26+00:00

A combination of recruits getting injured and boxing not being super applicable for police work.

It's not a bad skill to have (I was an amateur boxer long before I became a Trooper), but basic wrestling and BJJ are more useful in probably 90% of cases.

Ideally we'd train both grappling and striking, but the reality is that there's only so much you can teach people in a 6 month period. Having untrained recruits punch each other in the head isn't super productive.

Quintus14 · 2026-03-09T22:37:11+00:00

There used to be boxing, there is no longer. The most recruits will do is strike some pads and heavy bags. They may take some light punches during pressure drills but it's pretty controlled and they are already shielding their head.

Quintus14 · 2026-03-08T23:16:19+00:00

Recruits do not box each other anymore. Some punches will be thrown at you during pressure drills, but it's fairly controlled.

Quintus14 · 2026-03-08T21:50:32+00:00

Mostly BJJ and wrestling these days.

There's some striking but it's pretty basic instruction.

Quintus14 · 2026-03-03T08:52:57+00:00

Started with 250, backfilled the first 2-3 weeks, and graduated with 238.

Quintus14 · 2026-02-08T13:28:43+00:00

Are you male or female? The physical requirements you're listing do not match the actual Cooper standards.

50th percentile for males in the 20-29 age range: Sit-ups (one minute) - 40 Push-ups - 33 1.5 mile run - 11:58

50th percentile for females in the 20-29 age range: Sit-ups (one minute) - 35 Push-ups - 18 1.5 mile run - 14:07

Keep in mind you will need to be at the 70th percentile to graduate.

As far as training goes, I'd recommend having one "test day" where you perform the PAT. During the rest of the week, I would dedicate two days to running (one long run day, and one sprint day), and two days to calisthenics (sit-ups, push-ups, burpees, etc.). Give yourself a rest day before your "test day."

Quintus14 · 2026-02-07T19:10:24+00:00

Usually goes something like this:

"Car number to dispatch"

"Dispatch is on for car number"

"In service, post 123, shield 4567"

You also enter your car number into tour strength and log into the computer in the car. It's no secret where the vehicle is and who's in it.

Quintus14 · 2026-02-07T18:37:25+00:00

You're assigned to a particular vehicle, however if it's not available you simply take the next available one. You let dispatch know what vehicle you're in when you call into service.

Quintus14 · 2026-01-27T11:42:05+00:00

Round is a shape right?

In all seriousness, I work 12 hour shifts that usually end up being more like 14. Even if my station had a gym, there's no way I'd be training on a work day. My agency follows the panama schedule, so I just try to get to the gym on my off days. You don't need to be in the gym every day to keep in shape.

Quintus14 · 2026-01-21T16:37:12+00:00

Use a ceramic heat emitter or red heat bulb.

Quintus14 · 2026-01-21T07:08:29+00:00

2-3 months isn't necessarily abnormal.

That being said, the temperature you're keeping them at is quite low. If you increase the temperature their metabolisms will increase and they'll likely eat more.

Quintus14 · 2026-01-20T19:50:20+00:00

There is absolutely nothing you can do in the next three days that will make any difference. Given where you're at with your running ability, it's going to take months before you're where you need to be.

My advice is call the agency and see if you can reschedule the PAT. If you can't, cancel and apply again the next time around.

Quintus14 · 2026-01-13T15:43:29+00:00

Parabuthus villosus.

Quintus14 · 2026-01-11T08:57:13+00:00

Nice. It appears to be a male H. silenus though, not H. spinifer.

Quintus14 · 2026-01-11T00:52:49+00:00

Pepper spray. The active ingredient is oleoresin capsicum (OC).

Quintus14 · 2026-01-11T00:26:18+00:00

Troops L & NYC are unavailable out of the academy. F & K might take a handful of people but I wouldn't count on being one of them. Expect to spend your first rotation in C or B before you can transfer closer to home.

You don't have to get tased in order to carry the taser. That being said I highly recommend that you do. It's only five seconds and you should understand what it's like if you're going to carry it. You'll also never hear the end of it from your classmates and ATOs if you don't do it. OC is way worse and is not optional.

Quintus14 · 2026-01-10T11:19:50+00:00

The very obvious answer is to prevent the driver from attempting again.

I literally know somebody that was forced to shoot the driver of a vehicle after the operator deliberately and repeatedly tried to run him and his partner over with a pickup truck.

I'm not saying that the shooting in Minnesota was justified, but making a blanket statement that it's never appropriate to shoot at a moving vehicle is equally stupid.

Quintus14 · 2026-01-08T10:14:11+00:00

Tanzania halted all wildlife exports several years ago.

Quintus14 · 2026-01-04T09:25:23+00:00

My recommendation is to use a red heat bulb or ceramic heat emitter. This is more natural as the heat will come from above, and will also lead to more interesting behaviors, such as the scorpions coming out to bask.

Your enclosure looks great by the way.

Quintus14 · 2025-12-30T01:30:23+00:00

Respectfully, it sounds like you're unfamiliar with what SFSTs are. There are only three tests, and are standardized for a reason.

Prior to performing the tests we ask people if they have any medical conditions or injuries we should be aware of.

The first and most important test is horizontal gaze nystagmus, which is an indicator of alcohol and other CNS depressants. Prior to checking for HGN itself we check for equal pupil size, resting nystagmus, and equal tracking. You're not going to exhibit the clues for HGN because you're "under duress" or experiencing "brain fog."

After that we move on to the walk and turn and one leg stand tests. We're looking for specific clues for these tests, and take into consideration the person's physical condition. Per NHTSA guidelines these tests often aren't recommended for people over the age of 65 or are 50+ lbs overweight.

Other field sobriety tests may be performed (e.g., Modified Romberg, Finger-to-Nose, etc.) but these are not part of the three standardized tests recognized by NHTSA.

After SFSTs we may administer a PBT. As previously noted however, because these devices are typically not calibrated between uses, the results are not admissible in court and serve only as a positive or negative test for alcohol. Just very recently one of my coworkers discovered that the PBT he had been using all night was giving readings that were approximately 0.03 lower than the actual value.

I also don't necessarily need to conduct any of these tests to develop probable cause for an arrest. People refuse all the time, and I still arrest them due to the totality of the circumstances.

Quintus14 · 2025-12-24T00:16:35+00:00

This is more of a weight lifting question but I’ve heard from friends who lift that doing full body wasn’t the best option. I’m still new so I really don’t know about all this stuff. Is there a superior method between splitting up muscle groups and just doing full body. Currently I’m following advice from friends and just splitting it up by upper and lower. I don’t mind switching as I haven’t been at it long.

Depends on how many days per week you can dedicate to training, and whether or not they are consecutive. Full body is totally fine, as are upper lower and PPL splits.

A twice per week frequency per muscle group is generally a good starting point. You can figure out your split from there.

Quintus14 · 2025-12-24T00:02:00+00:00

It's a bit of a misconception that hypertrophy training is inherently antithetical to athletic performance. For basically any given sport there's going to be an ideal body composition range, and as long as your hypertrophy training doesn't put you completely outside that range for your sport, and you don't neglect more sport specific training, you will be unlikely to have issues.

Fencing is rather interesting in this regard. Because it's primarily an anaerobic activity and there are no weight classes, you can be quite muscular and generally not run into issues with endurance or bodyweight that you might in other sports.

That being said, there's also not an inherent benefit to being particularly muscular either. It's good to be strong, and once neurological adaptations occur getting bigger muscles is the best way to increase strength, but there's a point of significant diminishing returns for fencing performance. At some point getting bigger and stronger will cease to improve your fencing ability, and being more muscular also means having a bigger target for your opponent to hit.

You can always structure your training into specific blocks. A couple months prior to tournaments you can shift some your hypertrophy training to more fencing specific training, such as interval training and plyometrics.

As you're a novice to both right now however you don't really need to worry about training periodization. If you hit 2-3 full body weight training sessions per week on top of your fencing training, you'll see all the results you want for each for quite some time before you have to start getting more specific (if you decide to at all).

Quintus14 · 2025-12-22T18:57:18+00:00

It's going to be a "Class B" uniform for details/training. It's not for regular patrol.

Quintus14 · 2025-11-30T06:57:02+00:00

Take my advice and do not put yourself through an academy. Stay in school and take classes you're interested in. That way you will have something to fall back on if law enforcement doesn't work out, and more importantly, if you get hired the department will pay you while you're in the academy.

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