Squeeze Up

Posted by: Blue

Per Officer Safety Unit, Tac has advised them to start teaching the squeeze-up.

While using lethal force cover on a suspect, you tighten up your stance, getting closer to the other officer and use your off-hand to squeeze their leg when you approach them at their blind spot.  This is also useful in the case of tunnel-vision. One of you is then able to switch to a less lethal option such as a Taser while the other provides lethal cover for both officers.

Squeezing below the waist means that any sympathetic reaction should occur below their waist as well, thus lessening the chance of a sympathetic reaction above the waist like an accidental trigger pull.

This technique differs from what used to be taught, which is standing approximately 10 feet from your partner during lethal force coercion. Studies showed that if the suspect rushed one officer with a knife while the officer transitioned from a firearm to a Taser, by the time the officer with firearm coverage began shooting, he would be approximately three feet behind the suspect, until eventually over-correcting, leading ahead of the charging subject and firing bullets into his partner by mistake.

During tests by our OSU, the officer who was charged was shot 100% of the time with blue on blue friendly fire. The suspect was only hit approximately 20% of the time, and always after the officer went down.