Critical Thinking And Getting Off The X

EDITOR’S NOTE: Nothing in this blog involves ex-girlfriends or boyfriends, ex-husbands or wives, ex-employers, or the like. Sorry if that confused anyone.

In Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade Dr. Jones put to rest the age-old fantasy of following ancient maps to buried treasure when he stood at the front of his classroom and uttered the famous line, “… and ‘X’ never, ever marks the spot.” Of course, that was right before ‘X’ marked the spot.

Four Tactics

So, what is the X, anyway, and why should we get off of it? In classic cartoons it is the place where the piano or anvil is sure to fall. On a treasure map it is where the treasure is buried. In combat, it is the place where you were when you faced incoming gunfire. The X is the place you don’t want to be, and certainly not for very long.

Hopefully you’ve had some training around the topic of officer-involved shootings and officer-down rescues. When you look at much of that training you’ll find that the main principles that surround surviving a shooting or rescuing an injured officer while under the threat of gunfire will typically involve a few simple (but not easy) tactics:

1. Shoot

Shoot Back / Stop the Threat

First we must stoop the threat or force the bad guy to keep his head down with focused return fire so that you or some teammates can find cover or maneuver to rescue an injured officer. This is an active response to a reactive situation for the purpose of getting off your heels and tipping the scales back in your favor. Stopping the threat is a prerequisite for doing pretty much anything else.

2. Move

Get Off the X

Getting off the X is just the idea that you should not stay put once you’ve encounter gunfire. Chances are the bad guy will be moving too and you don’t want to stay where he last saw you because that is the first place he will look when he re-engages. I read a fortune cookie once that said, “A moving target is harder to hit.” Actually, I just made that up. But it’s true. Moving is similar to concealment in that it won’t stop the bullets but it does make you harder to find and harder to hit. Don’t be where the shooter expects you to be.

3. Communicate

Talk to Each Other and to Dispatch

I can’t over-emphasize how important it is to talk to each other. I’ve seen cops either go into vapor-lock and not communicate at all or they want to be super stealthy so they whisper or use some form of tactical sign language. These are not good options because none of us are mind-readers.

If you’ve ever played a team sport of any kind you know that the teams that don’t talk to each other during play are confused and ineffective, and consequently, easy to beat. Communication matters so much more when lives are at stake. Talking aloud to each other and letting responding units as well as Dispatch know where you are and what is happening over the radio are absolutely critical.

4. Medical

Self Treat / Buddy Treat

Once you’ve returned fire, stopped the threat (even temporarily), and moved and communicated, you can now treat yourself or your buddy for any injuries as the situation allows. These tactics follow this order for a reason. Yes, you can shoot, move, and communicate virtually simultaneously, but those three things have to occur before you can effectively treat a gunshot wound or other serious injury without getting killed in the process.

Cactus Water

But I have a question. Is it always better to get off the X, even if you cannot better your position? What if your cruiser, structure, tree, or whatever is the only thing you’ve got? Should you still leave it?

Some places just don’t have cover. How do I know this? I’ve been out west. Last year my son and I went on a tour de national parks and flew into Phoenix where we rented an SUV. We drove from Phoenix to Bozeman stopping to camp and see the sights along the way. Being the good tourists that we were, my son bought a quart of cactus water before leaving the Grand Canyon, because, hey, that sounded fun and there were so many health benefits listed on the side of the carton. It was so good, in fact, that he downed the whole thing.

As it turns out, no, cactus water is not fun, not even a little. Somewhere between the Grand Canyon and Horseshoe Bend that cactus water worked its diabolical magic. Suddenly, my son was like, “Dad, pull over!” So, being the good father that I am, I sensed the desperation and initiated an evasive maneuver and pulled onto the side of the road. In what seemed like a countdown too short for even NASA my son was out of the car doing his best impression of a space shuttle launch right there on the side of the road with nothing more than a few bushes the size of bonsai trees for cover. There was nothing to hide behind, not for miles. I know because we kept having to stop — for miles.

By the way, cactus water should be illegal or at least relegated to medical use and available by prescription only. It’s that powerful.

Hypothetically Speaking

Anyways, if I were in that same area on a hypothetical traffic stop that turned deadly instead of just having to answer Nature’s call, where would I go to get off the X? Should I get off the X and leave the cover of my cruiser? Would that really benefit me? I’m not so sure.

The reason I bring this all up is two-fold. One, to highlight the importance of getting trained up on winning an officer involved shooting or rescuing a downed officer. And two, regardless of what that training is, remember that all rules are not always hard and fast. We have to be critical thinkers who can read a situation and make real-time decisions based on an ever-changing environment. There is no one-size-fits-all. We should focus on principles, not just tactics — tactics are many, principles are few.

Principles

Adapt your training — or at least your takeaways from that training — for your part of the country or for a specific type of encounter. Don’t just blindly follow a process without running it through the filter of your unique situation and capabilities. Good training should teach you how to think, not what to think. Principles are guiding lights to lead you toward a successful outcome, they are not a formula or math equation. You must be able to think critically and take the principles you’ve learned and apply them to your tactics wherever you are.

Just because the professor says X will never, ever mark the spot does not make it so.  Think critically, adapt, and overcome.

To find some free training in your area check out my friends (I don’t actually know any of them but I have been through the training) at the ALERRT program at Texas State University.

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• What’s your take on getting off the X?
• What tactics work and what tactics don’t in your area?
• How do you separate principles from tactics?
• Are you learning how to think instead of what to think?

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