The Most Important Thing I Can Do This Year
Most officer safety training begins after the threat appears. FOCUS teaches officers to recognize danger before violence starts.
Let’s begin with some humor. A motorist is pulled over for speeding by a police officer. After he passes his license, insurance and registration, he asks the officer, “Isn’t there something more important you could be doing right now than pulling me over?” The officer answers politely, “Yes.”
I’ve been answering that question. What is the most important thing I can be doing right now?
In 1994, the police academy taught me one pre-attack indicator. If a subject isn’t listening to what you are saying and starts taking off clothing and removing jewelry, it is a red flag that you are about to be attacked.
That was it. One.
Hospitals train their staff on pre-attack indicators. So do corrections institutions. Almost every high-risk occupation trains for this. Hospitals and jails go deep, with a catalog of behaviors, a framework for reading them, and enough repetition that recognition becomes reflex. Law enforcement, the profession where the subject is most likely to be armed and least likely to be restrained, barely addresses it.
I didn’t know how wide that gap was until Dr. Travis Yates showed me the research. What follows is why I have committed to closing it in Florida.
The most important thing
On social media, the question was asked: what advice did you receive in the academy that you wish you had followed once you got on the street? Mine was easy. I wish I had listened when I was told to let the fire department beat you to the scene. Car fire smoke stays in your uniform the rest of your shift. A residential fire stays in your car’s air conditioning for weeks.
Experience gives us the wisdom of priorities and timing. Whether a law enforcement career is spent behind the steering wheel of a marked unit or behind a desk with stars on the collar, perspective is both gained and earned.
I’ve lost too many friends and family members recently, and our proximity in age gave me pause. It shuffled my priorities, not negatively but positively. My schedule today is full: caregiving, my church, important family projects, civic responsibilities including Crime Stoppers, my consulting work, and the articles I write for American Peace Officer. That may sound like a lot, but it is perfect. I live in paradise with my beautiful, supportive wife and we are both thankful and full of gratitude. I have the content to assemble and publish a book on policing, but what I was compelled to write first was a book on the grace of God, and it is coming out soon.
Have you ever thought something like this? What is the single most important thing I could do NOW that would save the lives of our law enforcement officers on the street?
My friend and colleague Dr. Travis Yates has identified the risk factors for law enforcement that have been buried for decades. Does his name sound familiar? Thirteen years ago, I sat in a Below 100 train-the-trainer event, a course that Yates developed that has saved countless officer and even suspect lives, and took him all over the country, including my jurisdiction. He is also the author of The Courageous Police Leader, a book I own both in paperback and on my Kindle.
He has spent more than three decades inside law enforcement, not consulting from the outside but working, leading and training from within. He is the founder of the Tactical Behavior Academy and the Courageous Leadership platform, and a recognized expert in behavioral threat management, pre-attack indicators and officer safety. More than 10,000 officers have come through his training, with 47 states represented, including the Oklahoma Highway Patrol, Pinal County Sheriff’s Office, Duluth Police Department, Henderson Police Department and the FBI National Academy. He’s the real deal.
From the earliest articles I published on American Peace Officer, I enjoyed his support. In 2023, we organized a successful ticketed seminar in Orlando. I have known his work long enough to recognize when he has built something different, and I was honored to have the privilege of watching this one take shape while it was still in progress.
FOCUS did not appear overnight. Dr. Yates has put thousands of hours into this curriculum, in methodical review of body-worn camera video and the literature behind it.
He addressed the problem head on. Most use-of-force training begins after the threat is already visible. Officers are left relying on instinct where they should have a trained, repeatable system. My 1994 academy experience was not an anomaly. It was the standard, and in too many places it still is.
As Dr. Yates puts it, officers are not getting hurt because they lack courage. “They are getting hurt because nobody taught them what to look for before the violence starts.”
The good news is the entire reason for this article. This can be and must be taught. The science exists; it simply has not been getting to the field. Officers can be trained to read what is in front of them before it becomes a fight, and when they are, it saves lives and reduces injuries for officers and suspects alike.
We must train this.
FOCUS stands for Field Observable Cues for Unknown Situations, and each word matters. Field: observable in real environments, not controlled ones. Observable: visible behavioral cues an officer can identify and act on with the right training. Cues: specific pre-attack indicators grounded in research. Unknown: applied to any contact, any environment, any threat level. Situations: the real-world scenarios where the framework earns its keep.
This is not instinct and it is not gut feeling. It is a trained skill with a repeatable system behind it. The one-day course covers:
● The science of pre-attack behavioral indicators
● Early recognition
● The full FOCUS framework and its application in the field
● Scenario-based recognition drills
FOCUS Training Saves Lives
The training that will save officers lives
I am hosting the one day FOCUS Certified training on Wednesday, October 28 at Decision Tactical in Sanford, Florida. This training site is located approximately halfway between the Orlando tourist district and Daytona Beach.
The date was not picked by accident. Neither was the venue. This one-day training in greater Orlando falls the day after the International Association of Chiefs of Police conference wraps up at the Orlando/Orange County convention center. Roughly 16,000 attendees from all over the nation and the world will already be here to learn. If you are one of them, you are one day and a short drive from the most consequential training you will take all year. Why not turn the trip into a long weekend with your family?
Venue: Decision Tactical
The venue was not picked by accident. Central Florida leads the world in dedicated event space. Decision Tactical is the world’s inaugural indoor tactical theme park, built initially for civilians and now a practical training site for dozens of law enforcement agencies. Unlike standing in a circle watching three screens, these experiences will elevate your heartrate and force you to engage under stress. It is full of proprietary technology developed with Full Sail University. Nothing on the planet compares to the immersive tactical experience offered there, and for training built on reading what a subject’s body is telling you a half second before he moves, the environment is the point.
When I made the commitment to bring Dr. Travis Yates to Florida, it wasn’t a commitment to Dr. Travis Yates. It was a commitment to the officers and deputies who will go to work the week after this class and meet somebody who has already decided to hurt them. If we have our way, the bad guys are in for a surprise.
Register your officers especially trainers and command staff. This is essential training for union reps and legal advisors too. Please share to invite every decision maker in your organization.
There is nothing more important you could be doing that day.
Please keep all our peace officers in your prayers.
Roland Clee served a major Florida police department as a Community Service Officer for more than 26 years. His career included uniformed patrol, training, media relations, intelligence, criminal investigations, and chief’s staff. He writes the American Peace Officer newsletter, speaks at public safety, recruiting and leadership conferences and helps local governments and public safety agencies through his business, CommandStaffConsulting.com.
His work is frequently featured on LawOfficer.com, the only law enforcement owned major media presence in the public safety realm.
For media interviews and podcast appearances, click here: http://bit.ly/40pT3NS
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