CATO Podcast

John Stanley served with the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department for 32 years. During his career, he taught non-lethal weapons, squad and riot control tactics, served as a member of TASER International’s (now Axon) correctional board of instructors, as a Senior Master Instructor, and lead instructor for the LASD Custody Incident Command School. Stanley is also an award-winning historian, authoring over 80 articles on law enforcement tactics and history, 530 biographical sketches on the peace officers who gave their lives in the line of duty serving the people of Los Angeles County, one novel, and a regular column called ‘From the Archives’ for CATO News magazine. He has recently worked as a consultant on Custody Use of Force cases and as a reader for Sid Heal’s book Concepts of Nonlethal Force. Stanley continues to teach Tactical Science courses in California and around the US for the company Field Command.

Sponsored by National Training Concepts

In this episode, Marcus Sprague of CATO sits down with a legend in law enforcement, Sid Heal, to discuss his new book Concepts of Nonlethal Force. With decades of experience in the military and law enforcement, Sid is a bit of a mad scientist and has authored several outstanding books, most notably Field Command and Sound Doctrine. He is one of the three founders of Field Command - the creators of Tactical Science - a 40 hr class that distills the principles of conflict management taught at war college into meaningful and practical applications for law enforcement. Sid is also the former president of the National Tactical Officers Association (NTOA) and recently retired as president from the California Association of Tactical Officers (CATO).

This podcast episode is part 2 of the longest one we have recorded to date. There is a lot of content here, so hang on. Sid’s new book is a textbook for anyone who needs to understand less-lethal options, why we use them, and what their limitations are. We cover a gamut of tactical principles, including how less-lethal options effectiveness are measured and how you can successfully navigate and articulate your decisions and explain the often-graphic outcomes from those decisions.

You can pre-order Sid's new book Concepts of Nonlethal Force: Understanding Force from Shouting to Shooting on Amazon or Barnes & Noble.

I hope you get as much out of this one as I did.

Enjoy the show!

Part 1 of 2: SWAT legend and CATO plank holder RK Miller discusses the importance of independent tactical team audits, what they are and why you should be doing them. RK has been training SWAT officers for over forty years, has conducted a variety of audits, and testifies as an expert defending teams throughout the nation. He is true gentlemen, and some say he conducted the AAR when Moses conducted rural operations and waterborne exercises at the Red Sea.

Marcus and Brent sit down with retired Alexandria Virginia Captain Tom Panther. Captain Panther, a former SWAT Operator and Commander, was one of the men charged with coordinating the response to the Pentagon attack on 09/11/01. While we hope to never repeat the experiences of 9/11 and the attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon, there are a lot of lessons to be learned. Panther shares his story and lessons learned from a law enforcement perspective. While he is retired now, the event had a profound impact on his personal and professional life. It also solidified his commitment to a controlled and disciplined response to catastrophic events by utilizing the ICS process. Panther is currently an adjunct faculty member of the TEEX Enhanced Incident Management/Unified Command for All Hazards course, a no-nonsense course packed with practical exercises to prepare students to manage a variety of complex incidents. For more information on that course go to teex.org/class/MGT314