KNOWLEDGE CREATED TOGETHER
SHOOTING IN REAL-LIFE SITUATIONS
In this whitepaper Introduction 3 Red & blue Glocks
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Training 4 Context 5 What’s next?
Written by Joanne Van Popering, Specialist G4S Academy
© 2020, G4S Academy
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Introduction Until recently, the practical part of the shooting courses had to be done in a static way on a shooting range.Thanks to a recent change in Belgian law, G4S Training & Consultancy Services is now the only private training school in Belgium that has the authorization of the FOD Internal Affairs to train real-life situations and started re-training all existing and new personnel with ‘blue Glocks’. Shooting on a range has its uses, especially for learning to aim, but it doesn’t really prepare the agent for using his weapon in the situations one might encounter ‘on the job’. Someone could be the best shooter on the range, and the worst shooter in a stress-situation. Another problem on the range was the fact that trainees had to learn to handle their weapon directly with a real gun.We now use ‘red Glocks’ for the first 4 hours of training, before handing them a real gun, thus limiting stress and dangerous situations on the shooting range.
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Red & blue Glocks ‘Red Glocks’ are exact replicas of the service weapons our agents use, the only difference being that they can’t fire. This limits stress for new trainees who never held a gun before, and allows them to learn all basic handling operations in a safer way. ‘Blue Glocks’ are also exact replicas, but they can fire non-lethal paint-filled projectiles. The advantage of the paint is not only to see if a target has been hit, but also to alter different outcomes of the training scenarios. Did you hit your target, are you hit, is your colleague wounded or deadly injured, etc.
The use of ‘blue Glocks’ offers a wide range of possibilities. At the very least, they allow seeing how trainees handle their weapon in stressful situations and allow a more thorough screening. Scenarios can be easily changed to the customer’s needs and wishes, training can be done inside or outside, in daylight or in dark situations with a flashlight. These are just an example of things we couldn’t legally train previously. The possibilities are endless, scenarios for money transports, bodyguards, agents guarding military facilities, etc. Even experienced personnel will find a plus-value in this type of training because it changes at every exercise.
Training At the moment, we have different scenarios available for our clients, and are constantly developing new ones to satisfy customer needs at a maximum level. It’s a new training tool that can be used on a small and personal scale. For instance assessing the reaction of a guard when confronted with different attacks: will he use his weapon or not, will he assess the situation correctly, etc. But also on a much larger scale, for instance as a part of crisis-management, or anti-terror exercises. Although we’ve been preparing this transition for nearly 2 years now, actual training started just a couple of months ago.We expect that we will develop this from the inside as more feedback comes in, but also from the outside, once our clients discover the possibilities of this new tool.
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Context Since the different terrorist attacks on European soil
This is mostly visible by all the different scenarios we
in recent years, Belgian lawmakers have reviewed and
already have to offer, but the system has a lot more
changed a lot of aspects in our industry. We see the
advantages.
transition from the classical gun training to our new system using blue and red Glocks, as a necessary step to
First of all, ammunition is cheaper than classical bullets,
ensure we can prepare trainees in the best possible way
and the training grounds have to meet less safety
for their job, now and in the ever-changing near future,
requirements than a shooting range. This allows us to
no matter how the situation might evolve.
train on our own site, avoiding long and costly trips to the shooting range. The client can decide to have cheaper
Of course, we didn’t invent this new system. Police and
training, or to invest the same amount in training and
military academies have been using this for some time
have better performing personnel, while we can train
now, for some of their personnel. We did a lot of market
more people at the same time.
research in our search for a new and improved training system, and by working closely together with several
Another aspect is the multitude of ammunition we can
Belgian police academies and the Royal Military Academy,
use apart from the paint-filled projectiles. We have for
we chose and fine-tuned the blue and red Glock system
instance extra loud bullets to measure the reaction of
for our and our customer’s needs.
both humans and animals, for instance guard dogs, to a gunshot, or provoke a typical ‘fight or flight’ reaction to better assess the trainees.
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The use of this kind of training is starting to prove its worth. Some trainees indicated the job might not be for them after all, while still learning on the red Glocks, thus avoiding a possible dangerous situation on the shooting range. Several existing personnel that were re-trained using blue Glocks thanked us for this first innovation in years of training. Actually, the two training systems can’t really be compared. The former training was, and still is, necessary to ensure trainees master the basic manipulations of their gun, before they are sent on their different missions. The new training handles all the other aspects: how to react, when to react, in what way, on ever-changing scenarios, focused solely on customer needs to mimic at best all possible situations the trainees might encounter ‘on the job’. Another important training aspect, which was nearly impossible to train previously, is that now we can also teach them when ‘not’ to use their weapon, when to take cover, when to call for back-up, …
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What’s next? We are only beginning to scratch the surface of the endless possibilities this new system has to offer, both for us and our clients, and are confident every single one of our values is represented in this program: “We act with Integrity and Respect, we are passionate about Safety, Security and Service Excellence, and we achieve this through Innovation and Teamwork”.
Do you want to know more about blue Glocks? Don’t hesitate to contact G4S Academy g4sacademy@be.g4s.com
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