Another way of entering a room with bad guys.....

I was reviewing PoliceOne a couple of days ago and there was an excellent article on by Senior Editor Doug Wyllie on limited tactical entry technique. Since taking the active shooter course a year ago I've been trying to keep up on these techniques and as the Israeli's have a lot of experience with hostage situations, this is something to take a good look at.

08/01/2011
Editor's Corner with PoliceOne Senior Editor Doug Wyllie

Because the overall operational goal is to save the life of the hostage (or hostages), shots must be “straight, fast, and coming from multiple barrels” in order to increase the chances of the threat going down immediately

I’ve been in contact recently with my friend Aaron Cohen, a former member of Duvdevan, for a column I’m writing about police response to multiple-target terrorist attacks — watch for that to appear with our special coverage of the 10-year anniversary of 9/11 a wee bit more than a month from now. During our recent conversations, we got to talking about some of the training he’s been giving to American law enforcers with his company, IMS Security.

“I just wrapped up training the Virginia Department of Corrections Special Tactics Unit in Israeli Special Forces style hostage rescue interdiction,” Cohen told me when we spoke late last week. “I believe that too many entry methods used in the U.S. today are outdated and increase the overall risk to officer safety — regardless of the amount of team training — because they mainly rely on the tactical shooting capabilities of the individual officer. This is because only one officer can physically file into a room at a time when a team is performing a physical entry. Regardless of how fast and or ‘dynamic’ and aggressive the entry is made, only one gun can still get in at a time...”

Cohen told me that he thinks the method in the video clip below is a better, safer, more advanced way to perform dynamic clears for hostage rescue and active shooter tactical responses. Now, I’ve done a limited amount of active-shooter and hostage rescue response training — in which I’ve worked every position of a stack — but I’ve never done anything like what you’ll see in the clip below.

Training to Save Lives of Innocents and LEOs

“The entry technique is the Israeli limited penetration entry which is vastly differs from the way U.S. special operations units make entries and clears. The Israeli method will enhance overall safety to officers as well as innocent civilians on the other side of the door being held against their will,” Cohen says. “People may ask me why I put this up online, since yeah, bad guys could potentially see it. I realize that putting this information up online is going to have its risks, but the benefits to officer safety in my opinion will far outweigh any such risks. The reason I put it up is that I think it’s going to do more benefit with all the LEOs who WILL see it, than harm if LEOs don’t get to see it.”

Cohen says that the amount of preparation involved — there’s so much that has to happen before this kind of tactic, before you running to the entry — that police officers will inherently have a significant advantage over “some idiot with a gun” because they’ve got all the necessary building blocks of tactical training and team preparation already under their belts.

“When you look at this short clip, you’re not going to be able to really and fully dissect the technique, but I believe that by making this little bit available to SWAT officers who can then follow-up with the training necessary to prepare for this kind of entry, we will ultimately enhance officer safety. Look at it this way: it’s going to take a hell of a lot more than just looking at the clip for somebody to actually pull this off. But the trained SWAT cop will quietly approve and comfortably be able to put it in their took kit.”

Cohen explained during our call that, because the overall operational goal is to save the life of the hostage (or hostages), shots must be “straight, fast, and coming from multiple barrels” in order to increase the chances of the threat — or threats — going down immediately.

“Neutralized threats,” Cohen said, “cannot kill hostages.”

According to Cohen, the tactical entry method in the video below is ideal for dynamic hostage rescue interdiction because it allows for the following:

• Extremely stable shooting platforms since the operators are standing and shooting as opposed to moving and trying to shoot accurately.
• Almost full cover from the ‘fatal funnel’ since the operators are engaging with practically 90 percent of their bodies behind cover (assuming those door jams constitute cover and not merely concealment).
• Extremely rapid dynamic assault to the physical target (operators are sprinting).
• 90 percent of the entire room to be cleared and ‘sterilized’ without ever physically entering the room — there is no tactical difference in terms of shot distance due to engaging threats an extra foot or two away while behind the door frame.
• Two weapons simultaneously engage with precision, increasing the odds of neutralizing all lethal threats immediately.
• Operators can simultaneously engage almost the entire room and clear 170 degree of threats from cover without being forced to commit to once specific sector of the room which forces them to rely on one another to cover to successfully cover each other while moving into a hostile room of the work is done from the door with great accuracy and more selective firepower.

Check out the video below — Cohen is the third man in the stack, deploying a diversionary device ...



Following his abovementioned work with the Virginia Department of Corrections, that agency wrote a rather glowing letter of recommendation for Cohen. It said, in part:

“On July 18, 2011, Aaron Cohen stepped onto the range in Virginia with 18 individuals preparing to instruct our Tactical Team in Israeli Special Forces Hostage Rescue Techniques. What we got was the best training our Team had ever taken ... Aaron’s instruction demanded perfection, and we would not settle for less. His highly motivated attitude kept us motivated and willing to learn. His motivation fed us and gave us the drive to succeed. The training is fast paced, but easy to learn and retain. Every LEO agency should take this course, it will save lives. We can’t wait to have him back in Virginia again.”

If you’re unfamiliar with Cohen or IMS Security, you may be interested to know that although he grew up the United States, in his late teens he followed his dream and moved to Israel with the intention of becoming a member of the Israeli Defense Forces. He spent some time spent working on a kibbutz before being selected — despite significant odds against him due to being born outside Israel — for service in the IDF. Not only that, he was chosen to join the ranks of the Duvdevan, that country’s elite counterterrorist special operations unit.

Following his service in the IDF, Cohen returned to the United States, where he now trains the members of our military as well as state and local law enforcement agencies around the country. Cohen is a regular guest on a handful of news channels like CNN and Fox News, and he’s the author of the excellent book, Brotherhood of Warriors: Behind Enemy Lines with a Commando in one of the World’s Most Elite Counterterrorism Units. I actually “met” Cohen when I finished reading his book — I enjoyed it so much I found his email address on the Internet and dropped him a quick note to offer my appreciation. We’ve been friends ever since...