Police refresh defense tactics

Lolita Harper

HILLSIDE DISTRICT -- Her screams echoed off the hillside.

“Help me,” the woman shouted. “Oh God, please someone help me.”

Burbank Police Officer Randy Lloyd moved his hand closer to his gun as

he approached the rocking trailer. Inside, he found a man with a knife

hovering over a half-naked woman. Before the attacker’s arm could swing

down again, Lloyd fired two shots into the midsection of the

knife-wielding man.

“Good work,” Burbank Police Officer Brent Ambrose said as he cued up

the tape of the screaming woman again. “That’s one of the toughest scenes

to walk into.”

Lloyd exited the trailer, followed by Burbank Police Officer Shane

Sindle -- playing the rapist -- who was dressed in a padded suit, stained

with two fresh pink paint marks where he had been hit by Lloyd’s

simulated ammunition.

The kidnap-and-rape dramatization was just one scenario officers faced

during defense tactics training at the Burbank Police Department’s

shooting range.

Each year, Burbank police officers undergo training to refresh their

tactical maneuvers and learn new skills, said Ambrose, the department’s

lead defense tactics officer. It takes about two months to put the entire

department through the course.

Officers use a variety of tools during the training, including the

padded suits, plastic batons and water-filled cans of “pepper spray.” For

the more dangerous scenarios, officers are outfitted with “simunition,”

guns and bullets that are exact replicas of the Glock 17 handguns police

normally carry but designed to shoot paint bullets, Ambrose said. The

guns are also painted blue so they won’t be confused with real guns.

“We don’t allow accidents up here,” Ambrose said.

In addition to creating specific scenarios, the program reinforces

general defense tactics and takeaway techniques. Officers practice the

martial art Krav Maga, to protect themselves against possible attacks.