Back in the day, I flew the B-1 bomber at speeds in excess of 600 miles per hour as low as 200 feet above the ground. One of the keys to survival in this kind of environment is to create time and distance from emerging threats. I call this creating decision space, and doing so effectively slows down the engagement, buying precious time to understand the situation and develop a winning course of action.
Just like military aviators, police professionals also benefit from creating decision space to deal with threats they face, and while both professions have to close with the bad guys to get the job done, to the maximum extent practical you should strive to dictate the terms of any engagement in both time and distance.
Though the concept of decision space is nothing new to the law enforcement community, we still see incidents in the field that failed to consider its use, often resulting in a bad outcome. Since it takes continuous exposure and training to program this habit, let’s take a moment to review how you can create decision space, use it to get the job done, and return home safely at end of watch.
Decision Space Defined
I describe decision space as the amount of time and maneuver room necessary to develop an effective course of action. Decision space is essentially all about “time to decide,” and in the end, there are two ways to get it:
- Be able to make good decisions faster by improving the flow of information and accelerating cognitive processing, and/or
- Create physical or virtual distance between you and the situation to buy more time. It works best if you run both aspects simultaneously and when instinctively integrated into your tactics, training and procedures.
Making Good Decisions Faster
Most readers are familiar with Colonel John Boyd’s decision cycle framework, commonly referred to as the “OODA loop.” The model characterizes decision-making as a cyclical series of steps whereby a person observes something, orients the meaning/impact of that observation on their objective(s), makes a decision on a course of action, and then acts.
The idea is that in a competitive situation, whoever can move accurately through the cycle at the fastest rate can impose their will on the opponent. In this regard, consider decision space as the maximum amount of time you have to get through the first three steps of the OODA loop while maintaining a competitive advantage or before the situation changes fundamentally.
Let’s look at ways to accelerate those first three steps.
Observe: Leverage your senses and instincts. Vision is crucial, but how many folks look without actually seeing what is happening around them? Seeing takes work, focus, and discipline. While LEOs are paid to be trained observers, I have personally witnessed many who were too distracted by cell phones, mobile data terminals (MDTs), personal issues, etc., to be aware of their surroundings. Cueing on a suspect’s tattoos, dress, words, behaviors, smell, body language, etc., is a great example of how using your senses and instinct can provide precious time to posture accordingly.
Orient: Let’s talk mindset here – like the difference between operating in “condition white” versus “condition yellow.” Mindset creates a lens for you to interpret events. The right mindset can decrease the processing and reaction time needed to accept that somebody is trying to hurt you or otherwise trying to gain a tactical advantage over you.
Decide: Seek the cognitive equivalent of muscle memory with a set of automated, reflexive decisions for specific situations. For example, if your partner precedes you into an apartment and yells “gun!” I suspect one of your reflexive survival reactions would be to draw your weapon and then assess what you see. What other kinds of automated decisions should be in your tool kit? One way to develop this is to “war-game” scenarios in your mind repeatedly, and of course, train to scenarios with enough repetition to ingrain them into your psyche. Consider priming yourself for action before your shift and even during your shift by going over these scenarios in your head to improve decision speed.
Creating Distance
Thinking faster will buy you some time, but creating physical room and time to exercise the OODA loop is invaluable. Simply put, the more distance you create between yourself and a threat, the more time you have to formulate a response and act appropriately.
Likewise, don’t forget about the value of operational intelligence that provides you the ability to study a pending problem and posture accordingly before you commit to an engagement — like using your MDT to see who you are about to walk upon. Here are some examples of actions you could take to deliberately manage your decision space — what other examples can you think of?
- Not allowing someone to approach you while seated in your patrol vehicle
- “Getting off the X” during an attack — choosing lateral movement instead of movement along the threat’s vector
- Disengaging from a confrontation to seek a more favorable tactical advantage in time/space
- Choosing to take your meals in the station instead of a restaurant
- Surveying a situation from afar instead of rolling up on something you don’t understand
- Parking your car down the street instead of in front of a complainants address
- Using surveillance to understand a building’s layout and associated threats prior to breach/entry
- Writing a ticket at the rear of your patrol car, or behind an open passenger-side door of your car instead of being seated in it, when conditions permit
Conclusion
Our goal in any tactical situation should be to posture ourselves in a way that maximizes our time to decide and act while dominating the situation in time and space. To do this, we need to work quickly through the decision cycle and be deliberate in managing our physical and virtual space whenever possible. What adjustments can you make to better exploit this concept and give yourself that competitive edge?
