With the ad hoc nature of Defensive Tactics (DT) technique selection, most agencies are operating without soundly engineered and medically reviewed DT programs. When instructors are untrained in the associated knowledge of injury mechanisms, scope, and probability, they may fail to communicate the actual risk of serious injury. In addition, there may be liberal use-of-force policies that do not take into account the disguised risk of injury. Either of these possibilities expose trainers and their agencies to Title 42 USC §1983 failure to train liabilities.

Governmental entities are exposed to these liabilities when either a policy, rule, or custom causes an employee to commit a violation; or when the entity fails to supervise, train, or discipline an employee, and that failure leads to a violation. The failure to train is evident in one of two ways:

1Insufficient training where an obvious need for training exists, i.e. An officer without deadly force training shoots someone unreasonably.

2A pattern of officer conduct puts policy-makers on notice, and the policy-maker fails to respond with training.

Specialized training is required when “the situation presents the employee with a difficult choice of the sort that training or supervision will make less difficult, or there is a history of employees mishandling the situation” and “that the wrong choice by the city’s police officers will frequently cause the deprivation of a citizen’s constitutional rights."*

TORIS provides a professionally-reviewed itemization of severe injuries and their mechanisms. These are contextualized and taught in vivo using physical, experiential instructional principles. The TORIS program achieves two major goals:

1Arm operators with personal lethal force options and an expanded, informed “shoot-don’t shoot” understanding.

2Teach trainers and policy-makers how debilitating and lethal injuries can be caused, both for lethal force application and to identify their risk in current training.

By learning to identify probable injury types and sites, trainers are better able to assess their current non-lethal protocol and recognize potential injuries. Eliminating the incipient risks that can become lethal injury will reduce training liability and address §1983 claims.

*Walker v. City of New York, 974 F.2d 293, 297-98 (2d Cir. 1992)

Professional Liability

Law enforcement agencies face growing exposures, requiring professional and general liability insurance as a shield against alleged bodily injury and wrongful acts. TORIS seeks to reduce the cost of professional liability insurance by providing a curriculum that produces a safer, better informed, more responsible operator.

It is our goal to provide operators with better protection—giving them expanded lethal force options, and access to reduced-cost comprehensive liability coverage to protect their professional lives.

Contact us for further details.