Repetition Is the Mother of Remembering and Automatic Actions

This just came in from the New York Times:

Minnesota officials said the police officer who fatally shot a Black man at a traffic stop did so accidentally, and meant to fire a Taser instead

Monday, April 12, 2021, 1:53 PM EST
“Officials released a graphic body-camera video that appeared to depict the officer shouting, ‘Taser!’ before firing her gun. The officer, who was not publicly identified, has been placed on administrative leave, officials said. In the hours after the shooting of Daunte Wright, 20, on Sunday afternoon, protests, violence and looting broke out in Brooklyn Center, a suburb of 30,000 people north of Minneapolis.”

The above situation is not a new one. I recall a news item where an older reserve police officer said he was going to tase someone being held down, and then pulled out his gun instead and shot the person several times, killing him. 

To avoid the above requires training — lots and lots of repetitive training. My thought about the need for automatic actions makes me recall the “Immediate Action” drills used back when I was in Army Basic Training. The one in particular had to do with the M16 rifle. What do you do when it fails to fire when you pull the trigger? It has been almost 50 years (believe it or not), but I still remember that you were to hit the magazine on the bottom with your left hand to be sure it was seated properly, then hit the “forward assist,” which was a lever on the right side of the rifle to make sure the bolt was fully seated. Lastly, you were to pull the charging handle back, with your right hand, perhaps ejecting a bullet, and then attempt to fire again. 

Why do I still remember these steps — because it was drilled into our heads. And not just our heads, but into our muscles. The command would be given at any time to perform immediate action, even if we were not on a live fire range. The idea being you have an enemy advancing on your position and your rifle is not firing. Tense situation — you bet! In those situations, you will only do what you have practiced again and again. 

I think law enforcement agencies are going to need to up their training regimens to use digital training simulations that officers go through and they need to chose which weapon they are going to use to subdue someone. When to fire and at whom? Then, they need to go through those situations again and again and again, until their actions become more automatic. 

One last war story. I had a First Sergeant who told me how he was with a Vietnamese unit as an adviser. They were pinned down and being advanced upon by an enemy unit. His rifle had mud down the barrel from diving for cover. So, he had to get out his cleaning kit and cleaning rod and put it together to clear the mud to make his weapon functional. Another tense situation. Fortunately, he lived to tell the story and he didn’t need to swing the rifle as a club because it would not fire.