Last October, I wrote Part 1 of “Training dipshittery” (apbweb.com/2025/10/training-dipshittery). After much fanfare, ticker-tape parades and a couple emails of support, it’s time for Part 2 of what is quickly becoming an annual review of the stupid stuff seen in law enforcement training.

Before we get to the long-awaited list of this year’s stupidest moments, a quick review of where this idea originated. As much as my adoring fans would love to give me credit for coining the word “dipshittery,” the credit for that piece of brilliant linguistic art goes to renowned firearms instructor and gun writer Dave Spaulding, who uses the term to describe the overabundance of obnoxious stupidity, including senseless, foolish or absurd behavior.

When it comes to defensive tactics training, some departments rarely, if ever, conduct meaningful training.

Trainer dipshittery

Leading off this year’s all-star lineup of training dipshittery, we have once again been inundated with a huge amount of material from various social media posts. And, just like in years past, we have a cornucopia of video from which to choose. We have video of an instructor talking about how to fight your way out of an ambush when you are in your vehicle. This guy advocates quickly exiting the driver’s side door, opening the rear passenger door, crawling through the back seat, leaning out the rear passenger door and engaging your adversary by shooting under the open door while lying across the back seat using a “simple one-handed shot.” But wait, there’s more! After that, he tells you to let go of the door, “do a simple little roll, then go into a standard pistol prone firing position” and continue engaging the target.

Sigh. If you haven’t watched this video, and you want to see an example of trying too hard to look cool, just do a search for bad firearms training videos or something similar. There’s so much wrong with this training advice. First, if your vehicle is drivable and deadly force is justified, why aren’t we quickly driving the vehicle out of the danger zone? If your vehicle is a bullet magnet and you can’t drive it out of the area, why in the world would you exit the vehicle just to get back in, then intentionally engage with deadly force from a bad one-handed shooting platform? Lastly, when he does his “simple little roll,” he puts his handgun down on the ground before rolling out of the vehicle, then takes a moment to find his pistol again because his “simple little roll” was disorienting enough that he had to regain his bearings.

As bad as Mr. Tactical-Roll guy is, the cleanup hitter for our trainer dipshittery segment is an instructor teaching a patrol rifle class. In this video, the student is walking slowly toward the target while shooting on the move. Downrange, there’s a guy standing right in front of the targets and just to the side of the target being used by the student. It gets worse. Two other students are pushing the shooter side to side while moving downrange and shooting.

Presumably, the guy standing downrange is the instructor. First, this is beyond stupid and has no place on any range. Second, every single student in this class should have had the good sense to walk away and refuse to be a part of this dipshittery. But at least if it was the instructor downrange, the Darwin Award could have been handed to this dude, and no one would ever be subjected to that kind of dipshittery ever again. If it was a student, this guy could be criminally charged with reckless endangering or a similar crime. There’s no place for this type of training regardless of the audience or intention. Training dipshittery at its worst.

Once again, qualification is not training. It is a test of minimum standards.

In-service training

It’s easy to find individual instances of training dipshittery. The content people post on social media platforms makes for some low-hanging fruit. But there are other examples of widespread training dipshittery from law enforcement agencies in our own backyard.

The number of law enforcement officers who are killed in the line of duty are split closely between felonious killings and accidental deaths. The circumstances leading to these deaths most often involve investigative and enforcement activities, including traffic stops and searches, which are closely followed by unprovoked attacks and ambushes. When it comes to accidental deaths, by far the leading cause of line-of-duty deaths from year to year is consistently motor vehicle crashes, followed by officers being struck by vehicles while working on roadways.

This is not new data; it has been the case for decades. Yet there are still departments that continue to train to minimum standards. This includes departments that train just enough so officers can pass the firearms qualification. Once again, qualification is not training. It is a test of minimum standards. Would you want to be operated on by a surgeon who only meets the minimum standard?

When it comes to defensive tactics training, some departments rarely, if ever, conduct any meaningful training. Some might do two to four hours annually. Some may do four to eight hours every two years. According to the FBI Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted reports, between 2010 and 2019 there were 547,573 assaults on police officers. That’s over half a million assaults! And we rarely train our officers in defensive tactics?! Training dipshittery!

I would argue this goes beyond training dipshittery and squarely into the realm of deliberate indifference.

Another example of training dipshittery, and quite possibly deliberate indifference from our law enforcement agencies, is the lack of training officers receive on emergency vehicle operations. When was the last time you had a meaningful driving class? How much time did you spend driving your patrol car last year? See a problem?

Between 2014 and the end of 2025, approximately 580 officers were killed in traffic-related crashes. This year alone, between January 1 and May 22, there have been 16 officers killed in traffic-related crashes. Just like people who drive regularly on our public highways, most police officers think they’re good drivers. This is the Dunning-Kruger effect, where people with limited knowledge or training greatly overestimate their own expertise while recognizing the limitations of others. In our profession, this means more officers killed in the line of duty.

Call it out

If you see training dipshittery in the wild, call it out and let me know. This has quickly become an annual article, and maybe we can shed some light on these issues and help drive some much-needed change.