Are Police Officers Training for Chaos?

If I were to describe the beginning of 2025 from a law enforcement perspective, one word comes to mind.  Chaos.  Within 24 hours there were two significant events that required a rapid and effective response from first responders to save lives and calm the chaos.

During a New Year’s Eve celebration on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, a suspect used a vehicle as a weapon and drove into a crowd of innocent people killing 14 and injuring 35 more.  He then engaged in a shootout with responding police officers and was ultimately killed.

In Las Vegas, an active-duty Army Ranger battling his own demons decided to detonate improvised explosives after taking his own life.  He did this in front of Trump International Hotel in a rented Cybertruck.  Seven people were injured in the explosion. 

There was non-stop news coverage on both horrific events.  It appeared the US was under attack, and police departments across the country were preparing for similar incidents in their respective communities.

But how do you prepare for such random attacks?

I have discussed critical incident training and preparation in previous posts.  You can read them here and here.

In this post I want to talk about preparing mentally for the chaos that will happen around you when responding to events like those above.

To properly mentally prepare for chaos, I want you to visualize what the officers in New Orleans must have experienced.  

Imagine running into a screaming crowd after seeing a truck strike dozens of people.  Would you know what is actually happing at first?  A drunk driver?  An intentional act?  These are the thoughts that you may be have as you’re running to help. 

The radio is full of disjointed information from officers already on scene and dispatch relating information from 911 callers.  As you get closer you see the bodies of victims on the ground.  Some citizens are running away while others are trying to help the victims.

Then you are met with gunfire….

Now I want you to think about the last scenario training that you did as a police officer.  Did it feel the same as what you imagined?

Probably not.

It has been my experience that the missing element to most police training is chaos.  We are good at training specific scenarios with certain goals in mind, but it is hard to train for emotional responses.  

We can induce stress through role players and Simunition rounds, but it is hard to replicate the true chaos that I and many other first responders have faced during active assailant incidents. 

Here are some ways that you can improve your critical incident training to include an element of chaos:

• Reality Based Training- Real-life training in new locations such as schools during summer break, or shopping malls afterhours, can make a training scenario seem more realistic.  To truly create chaos in these situations, you may need multiple role players to act as victims, bystanders, and suspects.

• Virtual Reality Training- As technology improves, more realistic training can be recreated through virtual reality. 

• Critical Incident Debriefs- Finding quality presenters that have experienced chaos during real events who are willing to share their experiences will help prepare students for what to expect.  Bodycam footage will make these presentations especially impactful.

• Leadership Training- The one thing that will have the most impact on whether a critical incident will have a positive resolution is leadership.  The leaders on your agency must be prepared to lead through the most chaotic events. 

  
  

My heart goes out to the victims and their families of the horrific New Orleans attack, and those injured in Las Vegas. 

If you’d like to equip your agency with critical incident training that prepares first responders for the emotions they’ll feel in the moment, AND how to mitigate those emotions to perform at their best, please reach out through our website, here.