Being a law enforcement officer means at times having to deal with dangerous –– and even deadly –– situations involving armed criminals.
Being prepared for such situations cannot be taken lightly, especially considering the reality that those armed criminals can themselves be well-prepared.
Law enforcement officers from around Missouri sometimes prepare by training at the Big Piney Sportsman’s Club (BPSC) near Houston, in courses conducted by instructors from Tactical Analysis Group, LLC (TAG).
On its website, TAG (based at Fort Leonard Wood) states its mission includes providing “imaginative, state-of-the-art advanced skills training for legally armed civilians, law enforcement, military, and select contractors,” while also specializing in “situational security analysis for groups, events, business and private citizens.”
Director and lead instructor David C. Reed and senior instructor Ralph Alkire, Sr. (who have taught together for 15 years) both have significant military and law enforcement experience and are lifetime BPSC members. Reed said TAG’s motto stems from a very real belief that the type of training officers receives makes a big difference in their ability to deal with critical situations.
“Our motto is, ‘When life is on the line, where you trained matters,’” he said. “That’s not just a clever line; that’s real.”
From May 16 through 20, Reed and Alkire hosted a precision rifle training course at the BPSC, the 14th such course they’ve conducted at the club’s 156-acre grounds since 2005. The physically and mentally challenging five-day class is designed to train police, military, and select cleared civilians in marksman observer skills and operations, and enhance students’ ability to respond to incidents involving criminal or terrorist acts.
“They have to be able to master the fundamentals of their weapon, and deliver controlled fire, on target, on time,” Reed said. “But basically, we’re training these guys to win a gunfight.”
With portions of the training being done both in a classroom setting and in the field, course applications include high risk warrants, active shooters, hostage situations, barricaded subjects, narcotics raids, VIP protection, surveillance, and more. Students focus on long range and tactical rifle shooting techniques involving a wide variety of targets, angles, obstacles and conditions.
Contingent on full participation and the successful execution of three separate qualifications, students completing the course receive 50 hours of Missouri Peace Officer Standards and Training credit. The recent class at the BPSC was attended by officers from law enforcement agencies including the Newton County Sheriff’s Department and the University of Missouri-Kansas City Police Department.
One of the main focuses for the group was marksmanship in a rural environment.
“Our goal is to train law enforcement officers to react to critical incidents in a proper fashion,” Alkire said.
“They’re trained to react in austere conditions in a variety of environments, including urban and rural, day and night,” Reed said. “We don’t just train them in a comfortable position, but also in an improvised or hasty position. We also train them the proper elements of a weapon, proper documentation, how to clean a gun, and weapon test-and-evaluate techniques – which is making sure their gun is ready.
“When they get a call, it’s going to be very time dynamic, critical and lives are going to on the line. Whatever they have has to ready right now.”
By request, the TAG duo holds training courses at other locations in Missouri, but the BPSC is their usual venue. Other agencies that have sent officers through TAG training courses include the Missouri State Highway Patrol, Missouri Department of Conservation, the Federal Bureau of Prisons (in Jefferson City), and the Houston Police Department.
BPSC president Bob Roach said Reed and Alkire make up a highly effective teaching tandem.
“These guys are top-notch instructors,” Roach said. “I’d put them up against any others anywhere in the country.”
Reed said training them to win a gunfight means also teaching law officers to be as comfortable as possible making snap decisions involving major consequences in less-than-desirable circumstances.
“Black and white decision making is easy, it’s living in the gray area that’s hard,” he said. “These guys have to train to make split second decisions a lawyer would take months to make. And then sometimes they’re judged for the rest of their lives on something that took three seconds to transpire.”
These guys have to train to make split second decisions a lawyer would take months to make. And then sometimes they’re judged for the rest of their lives on something that took three seconds to transpire.”