Well boys and girls this is my first attempt at setting up and running a blog for HARD TARGET Firearms Training. Please let me know how this is working out and also let me know what it is that you want to know about in the firearms training world.
As you may or may not know, I am a retired Evansville Police Officer. I retired in December of 2008 with over 33 years of service. During my time with the Evansville Police Department (EPD) I was very fortunate to have been able to perform a lot really cool jobs. Here is how my police career with the EPD went just so you can get to know me and where I am coming from when I post on this blog site.
I hired on the EPD as a Patrolman on July 9, 1975, and in short order I managed to do most all of the things I dreamed of doing as a law enforcement officer. I was a member of the EPD SWAT Team for ten years and during my time as a SWAT cop I was a member of the entry team, and later on I was a member of the explosive entry team. I was also the primary sniper for the SWAT Team during my last several years on the SWAT Team.
While I was a SWAT Team member I went to the Hazardous Devices School in Huntsville, Alabama at Redstone Arsenal. I was trained by Army Explosive Ordnance Device (EOD) personnel and I became a certified Bomb Technician for the EPD. I was the third Bomb Tech in the history of the EPD. Ray Hamner was the first Bomb Tech and Dennis Buickel was the second Bomb Tech. When Ray Hamner made Chief of Police, Dennis Buickel went to the school so he could replace Hamner as the EPD Bomb Technician.
Ray was a pretty forward thinking kind of guy and he talked to Buickel about Buickel having an assistant. Chief Hamner asked Dennis Buickel to pick his assistant. Dennis was a hard nosed street cop and we had worked around each other for a number of years and we had a mutual respect for one another. Dennis came to me and asked me if I would consider going to Bomb School so I could work with him on the newly formed Evansville Police Department Bomb "Team."
I admired and greatly respected Dennis and I agreed to go to the school. While Dennis and I were the two Bomb Techs for the EPD we disposed of more unstable dynamite than anyone else on the EPD. Dealing with unstable dynamite just so happens to be one of the Bomb Tech's most dangerous jobs. John Zirkelbach went to the school and we became a three man Bomb Team. I worked with Dennis and John on handling and disposing of numerous sticks of unstable dynamite during my seven year stint.
Dennis Buickel became the SWAT Team Commander and John Zirkelbach and I were members of the SWAT Team and we formed the Explosive Entry Team for the SWAT Team. Although John and I never used our skills in an actual SWAT call up, we did practice explosive entries several times and became pretty darn good at it.
During the time that I worked in the Motor Patrol Division of the EPD I was asked to be a Field Training Officer (FTO). We did not have an actual FTO program at the time, but many of the things I did with the rookie officers that I trained became part of the formal FTO program. I always liked working with the rookie officers and teaching them how to be good street cops. I had been very fortunate to have had the opportunity to work with some GREAT street cops during my time in the Motor Patrol Division.
I worked with Allen Byers, Jim Epley, John Zirkelbach, Steve Cain, Mike Lauderdale, and Danny Carlile to name a few. All of these officers were top notch police officers and real kick ass cops. I used my experiences with these gentlemen to help me to teach new officers what I thought they should know on the mean streets of Evansville.
I also became a firearms instructor and this was one of my favorite jobs. I eventually held my most covetted job, I became the Firearms Training Coordinator (FTC). The FTC's job is to design and implement the firearms training and qualifications for all of the EPD weapon systems. As the FTC I was also responsible for inspecting all of our weapon systems on an annual basis. Although I did not hold a supervisory rank (i.e. Sergeant), I was responsible for anywhere from 12 to 20 part-time firearms instructors.
I like to tell people that I dragged the EPD kicking and screaming into the 21st Century when it came to my firearms training program. I was met with a lot of resistance over my four years as the FTC, but I feel as though I was able to accomplish a lot of really great things in a short period of time. We had a very progressive firearms training program that made me feel very confident that our officers were some of the best trained police officers in the nation when it came to firearms training.
As the FTC I set up an eight hour firearms training day at Red Brush Rifle Range where all 285 of our EPD officers participated in handgun and shotgun tactical firearms training. I also implemented a testing system for our officers that allowed me to train our officers according to their skill level. I was very proud of this program and I was complimented several times by NRA Law Enforcement Firearms Instructors that came to Evansville to conduct NRA Law Enforcement Firearms Instructor Schools.
Every one of these NRA Instructors claimed that the EPD had one of the top firearms training programs in the country under my supervision. They rated our firearms program as being in the top 10% in the country which was a big feather in our cap as far as I was concerned.
When our officers came to Red Brush for the 8-hour tactical firearms training day, we incorporated a written test that tested the officer's knowledge on important tactical information and general knowledge. We also tested each officer by running them through a very strict Gunhandling Skills test. In this test each officer had to demonstrate that he/she was able to perform all of the key gunhandling skills that could one day save their lives. The last test was a very short shooting test in which the officers were stressed by having extremely short time frames to perform various shooting skills that an officer was likely to use in an actual police involved shooting.
All of our officers started out in the basic level - LEVEL ONE and if they tested well, they would graduate to LEVEL TWO. The following year we set up training for LEVEL ONE officers and LEVEL TWO officers. This allowed our officers to not be held back as to the level of training because of unskilled officers. It also motivated officers to practice and to attempt to graduate to a higher skill level.
Each year we conducted the testing until we had graduated everyone out of LEVEL ONE and we had officers scattered throughout LEVEL TWO, LEVEL THREE, and the highest level, LEVEL FOUR. Our LEVEL FOUR officers were allowed to practice the most advanced firearms training skill sets while the other levels practiced skill sets commensurate with their skill level. Some of the other things we accomplished with my firearms training program were - we completely revamped the firearms qualifications with the handgun, shotgun, and patrol rifle.
We also set up the first ever Firearms Training Unit site on the EPD computer system. We used our site to promote our officers' skill levels, we put pertinent information on the site that would help the officers to pass the tests, and make them tougher targets on the streets. We also set up the first ever training program for our part-time firearms instructors. This program was key to the success of the overall firearms training program. Training the instructors helped us to educate our instructors, get us all on the same page, and promote teamwork amongst our instructors so we were all working towards the same acheivable goals.
Okay, Okay, I know I must be boring the hell out of you. This is a small part of my 33 year career. I was very active on the EPD and I tried my best to be a team player and do more than what was expected of me. I worked as a street cop and as a detective, but my all time favorite job was being the Firearms Training Coordinator. Too bad it came to an end before I was able to accomplish all of my goals, but that is life as they say. As the FTC some people thought I was the cat's meow while others loathed me.
Most importantly to me, I know I made a difference in several good street cops' and detectives' police careers and I helped to keep them safe. I am very proud that I never lost an officer while I was the FTC and all of our shootings were ruled justified and our officers came out of those shootings unscathed. To me, that made it worth all the bullshit I had to put up with from some of my superior officers.
Let me know what you would like my next blog to be about in the firearms training world.
Guy Minnis, Director of Training
HARD TARGET Firearms Training
Evansville, Indiana
Visit our website at http://www.hardtargetfirearms.com/
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