There is a saying in law enforcement that the only thing cheaper than a cop, is two cops and the only thing cheaper than two cops, is one retired cop. They also say that there is a little bit of truth in every joke. I definitely agree in this case.
While the legal and moral obligation for high frequency and high quality training for law enforcement officers lies with the head of each organization, outside of the FBI’s Hostage Rescue Team, I am not aware of one agency that meets or exceeds this demand for the rank and file.
Early on in my career, I was fortunate to have worked in really dangerous areas and be right in the middle of incidents where, only for the grace of God, I could have died. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed every second of it, but I sought out training right away because I immediately became aware of how undertrained I was.
Some officers can’t afford to seek out training outside of work. Others are so arrogant that they don’t think they should have to invest in their own survival (in one sense, they are correct). So in May of 2025, not coincidentally, I held Stretz Tactical’s first sponsored police firearms training event, at the conclusion of Police Memorial Week.
The event was free to law enforcement officers (just bring your own guns, ammunition, and gear). The event was paid for by industry partners of Stretz Tactical. For their support, the vendors could bring their products to an adjacent range where law enforcement, both enrolled in the class and not, could test fire the vendor’s products.
With the pistol event full with a waiting list and being well-received, I made the call to do a sponsored patrol rifle course for police memorial week 2026.
Patrol rifles are even more undertrained than pistols in terms of quality and quantity. One officer in the class told me they fired a grand total of 20 rounds of patrol rifle ammunition in the police academy—enough to do their qualification course. In one of my previous articles: Leadership Apathy: Dismantling-the Patrol Rifle Program, I discuss how the patrol rifle program I started and ran for eleven and a half years was intentionally whittled away, so I was not shocked.
The best part about having industry partners is that I was able to secure free loaner Springfield Armory rifles for the four students in the class who either couldn’t bring a department-issued patrol rifle or didn’t have their own. The only thing students had to pay for on their own was rifle ammunition and handgun ammunition (for transitions). As long as you were willing to train on your own time, take a day off, or get your agency to cut you free from your assignment for the day, you really had no excuse not to come out and train.
This year’s event was sponsored by Safariland, Silencerco, The Evans Group, Tactical Snacks, Breakthrough Clean, Pronto Printer, and Springfield Armory. Each student received a Safariland MOLLE-compatible M4 Rifle Magazine Pouch, a sample pack of cleaner, lube, and grease from Breakthrough Clean, and sour gummy snacks from Tactical Snacks. In addition to top shooter prizes from Safariland, Surefire, and Edgar Sherman Designs, a VELOS 556K was donated by SilencerCo and was raffled off in support of the event.
After the initial intros, safety, and med brief, we got to work on zeroing. Every carbine class I do, I ask folks to check their zero prior to coming to class to save valuable training time. Most never do. So we spent over an hour zeroing/confirming zeroes. The range we used for the class only allows live fire for six hours a day. So that left five hours to train (minus a short break to eat and check out the vendor range bay).
After zeroing, we worked on marksmanship at 50 from standing. Most police departments in my area only train at 25 yards and in. In my article on Firearms Training Standards, I discuss the importance of training to at least 100 yards.
We next moved up to 7 yards and worked on fundamental drills: Offset (height over bore), Up drills, and Bill drills, where we discussed snapping the gun up quickly & manipulating the safety with the M4 and MP5 (one agency brought both).
We then moved back to 50 yards so officers could both gain confidence in making shots past the standard 25 yards most agencies train at and work on reloads and malfunctions outside of pistol distance. This was immediately followed by a return to 7 yards for transitions to pistol.
My hope is that by changing the distance, it ingrains in their memory when to choose to transition vs. fix their long gun. I also prefer to do transitions second and tell students that for the remainder of the class, when you go dry or get a malfunction, choose the appropriate action on your own, based on your distance and other factors.
After lunch and a trip next door to the vendor range, we discussed topics such as “coming online to shoot”. Some team tactics drills were then used to help put this into practice and again, hopefully ingrain it into their memory.
I have seen way too many cops (and soldiers) taking shots past other cops that could have easily ended in tragedy by a cop moving slightly and unknowingly into their line of fire. I know of one real-world tragedy in New York, where that exact situation occurred, and it cost an officer their life.
We concluded with some drills on steel at distance and a shoot-off, caused by a three-way tie for one of the top shooter prizes. This was followed up by an after-action review, awarding the top shooter prizes, some swag from The Evans Group, certificates, and a drawing of the winner for the Silencerco raffle.
A big thank you to all the sponsors who made this event free to law enforcement. We could not have done that without each and every one of you!
As a business owner, I hope to see some of the officers pay to come back and train, but my real hope is that I opened their eyes to how undertrained they really are and inspired them to invest in their own survival! To host a Stretz Tactical course in your state, click here: https://www.stretztactical.com/
