High Risk Vehicle Stops

This course is designed to instill the officer with the ability to conduct a safe and effective traffic stop and to give them the tools to respond to the actions of the subject involved to attempt to de-escalate the situation and respond appropriately.

The course will start with a classroom presentation. Included in the power point are videos from previous high risk stops from other agencies.  Those videos, some tragic, are shown to outline the dangers of high risk stops and what law enforcement learned from them.  Other videos show a more modern, safe, and effective way to conduct high risk traffic stops.  The 3 principals now taught is time, distance, and cover.

After the classroom presentation students will move outdoors to complete practical drills using what was learned in the classroom.  During the practical portion students will learn proper squad car placement, to include those when an offender crashes a car or doesn’t stop along the road creating obstacles for the students.  Students will also conduct drills using 2, 3, & 4 officer responses.

Training Objectives:

• Explain why high-risk patrol operations were developed and the need for them to be integrated into their daily patrol activities.
• Identify and discuss use-of-force and safety priority issues related to high-risk patrol incidents, including immediate defense of life, law, police, procedure, and established safety priorities.
• Describe the appropriate and necessary equipment to be used when conducting these types of operations, including weapons and ammunition and uniform/identification requirements.
• Demonstrate practical knowledge and performance ability while conducting high-risk patrol operations, as well as movement formations, verbal skills, firearms handling/deployment skills, and working as a team.
• Demonstrate proper Use of Force and De-Escalation techniques.
• Properly perform High Risk Traffic Stop techniques and tactics with cooperative and uncooperative subjects.
• Properly take a suspect into physical custody.
• Demonstrate proper use of cover, concealment, and time.
• Demonstrate their ability to use clear and concise verbal commands.
• Understand and practice high-risk vehicle stop team leader skill sets.