Posted: 9/13/2010 3:40:58 PM EDT
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a.k.a. Emergency Vehicle Operations Course
started today in the Academy. No pursuit/high speed stuff, just a lot of technical and precision driving. After spending all day in the patrol car, I hopped in my car, and nearly broke the windshield wiper stalk off of my steering column trying to put my car into gear. 
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Quoted:
a.k.a. Emergency Vehicle Operations Course started today in the Academy. No pursuit/high speed stuff, just a lot of technical and precision driving. After spending all day in the patrol car, I hopped in my car, and nearly broke the windshield wiper stalk off of my steering column trying to put my car into gear.
I know what you mean! I just did mine a few weeks ago! Off road recovery at 65 mph was the best! |
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Quoted:
After spending all day in the patrol car, I hopped in my car, and nearly broke the windshield wiper stalk off of my steering column trying to put my car into gear.
Awesome.
To think the worst I have of it is trying to push in the clutch pedal on my wife's car with automatic transmission. 
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After we had been through them a few times they told us to go ahead and push the limits so we knew what the cars felt like at the edge of control. Yeah, put a few college kids into a beat up old squad car and send them around a lot with a bunch of cones set up and tell them to "push the limit"  Lots of good times. |
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Always remember your driving fundamentals and drive 80% of your max. Stress driving skills, like shooting are perishable.
1. High visual horizon. 2. Shuffle steer, avoid biometric lock-up. 3. High entry to turns, low apex, high exit. Good eye placement will help with this. Stay one step ahead. Look to your exit before you hit the apex. Where you look is where you are going to go. 4. Smooth throttle application 5. Straight line braking before the turn, coast through the apex, smooth acceleration out. Don't be afraid to threshold brake. Never enter turns at maximum... efficient driving wins over speed every time. Remember, most runners (including "sports car" kids) can't drive worth a crap, so don't follow their lines. 6. 3-4 second space cushion (again NEVER follow suspect's lines.) 7. Clear those intersections, especially the blind ones. 8. Drive within policy. 9. Transmit updates in straightaways... never in a turn. Windows up. 10. Call out approaching intersections, not the ones you have passed. Combat breathing helps but is not always possible using the radio. The adrenaline dump is inevitable, minimizing it's effects any way you can will help you avoid tunnel vision and "panic radio." We only have to come in second. The real cadet killer in EVOC is skid pan. If you can pass that, everything else can be overcome. 90% of my cadet failures were skid pan. |
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After we had been through them a few times they told us to go ahead and push the limits so we knew what the cars felt like at the edge of control. You have to know your limits to drive within them. Some cadets need to be reined in and some need to be pushed. One of the best lessons is losing control of the vehicle. Cones die so people don't have to. 
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Is there anywhere that teaches high performance/pursuit driving privately? Our force dumbed down the driving skills to barely more than a standard driving test so I have no real performance driving experience. No skid pad, no J-turns, nothing. We don't have a skid pad and won't learn how to do J turns.... I think only the TX LEOs may have heard the problem we are going through, but FWIW, we are going through the TEEX Emergency Vehicle Operations. Norcal: We are taught to shuffle steer, but let's just say it's taking some getting used to. |
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Norcal: We are taught to shuffle steer, but let's just say it's taking some getting used to. It was odd for me too. Just practice when you are driving around. It helps to go into "EVOC mode" while driving during the academy. Practice your steering, eye placement and lines when you are putting around town. Use your safe available roadway and practice. Remember, anything you make a habit of doing will be one less thing you need to worry about when you need to multi-task during evaluations. 
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