Driving and Comms
Cadets will be assessed on their ability to drive and do communications in their officer assessment and is important they are confident in doing this. A cadet should also only be on patrol in a Crown Vic.
The first stage in teaching a cadet how to give comms is familiarizing them with the use of the compass, and road names. This is important to ensure they are confident giving direction and knowing which information they need to give through their communications. A run through of what they need to say should also be explained.
Direction (left/right/continuing)
Road name (Vespucci)
Cardinal direction (west bound)
Landmarks (past red garage).
This should be practiced in a non-pursuit environment until the cadet is comfortable.
An introduction to driving should also be done in a non-pursuit environment, where the different pursuit modes and the vehicle class system should be discussed. Start in B mode, and practice changing the mode up to S, and familiarize the cadet with common vehicles we see and pursue in actives and their classes.
For example:
Sultan (A class)
Massacro (A class)
Jugular (S class)
This should then be introduced into a mock-pursuit setting where the cadet is required to practice the spacing of the vehicle and the different positions of a chase. The space between each car should be around 2 car lengths, with spacing not directly behind the vehicle in front helping to avoid collisions (demonstrated in the diagram). The roles in a pursuit are:
Primary: keep eyes on the suspect vehicle, give comms if a double unit
Secondary: deliver comms and support primary in keeping eyes, if primary crashes take position.
Tertiary: needed for manoeuvres such as pit, box spike, also maintain eyes and take any position required.
Parallels: run parallel to the pursuit, do tactical blocks and go around any alleyways/ rat runs a suspect may do.
A cadet should not progress onto driving and doing comms until they are confident doing them both separately. At first again they will practice driving and giving comms in a relaxed non-pursuit environment, which will then progress into a mock-pursuit. It is the FTO discretion to allow a cadet to do either of these in a real pursuit, however this should not be done until they are confident, and they understand what they must do and the different roles in the pursuit.
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