Recently, I had the opportunity to teach what amounted to an EVOC "refresher" class for a mixed group of LE officers and private security personnel at a driver training facility in northern California. The two days of training consisted of baseline assessment drills progressing through high-energy, adrenaline-filled pursuit situations. Along the way, the students—whose job duties involved either patrol mixed with SWAT duties, administrative functions or executive protection—arrived at the same conclusion: Driver training for all of them was an essential part of their job duties, and something that they rarely get. The reasons for this are all too familiar. We live in a time where the "sacred cow" of public service, law enforcement, is routinely financially slaughtered—with layoffs and reduced training budgets.
Regardless of where departments place their priorities, the simple fact is that vehicle technologies continue to march forward, presenting a double-edged sword of enhanced safety and performance on one side, and a complete lack of training on these technologies on the other. Case in point: During one of the exercises, a mock pursuit, one of the officers, driving a Dodge Charger V6, chose to try driving the demanding course with the stability control deactivated. The results were predictable. The car became a handful, causing him to go slower, and the view from my driver's seat as I followed him was entertaining, to say the least. However, the mere fact that he chose to disable the system to identify the value of the system was commendable. It also pointed out that, for the most part, officers are handed brand new cars with oodles of technologies that they simply are never trained on. This can lead to potentially catastrophic consequences—remember what happened when ABS (anti-lock braking systems) first came out and officers weren't trained?—and a disconnect between the officer's interpretation of what he or she expects the car to do in a given situation and what it actually does.
Experiential learning is the key. Following is a synopsis of current technologies and some simple and inexpensive training exercises that will get the point across. Of course, all of these should be done under the control of a certified EVOC instructor. But they're low speed and don't require a lot of space or equipment, and they work.
Anti-Lock Braking System
ABS has been around for a while and was finally standardized in 2012 at a federal level, as part of an effort to mandate stability controls in vehicles. Bottom line: All passenger vehicles now have them. Since many academies teach ABS braking, you may be wondering why I included it here. The answer is simple: I still get students in driver training classes who have never experienced it, and even more LE students who don't understand what it does, and why it's so important.
What it is: The theory behind anti-lock braking system (ABS) is simple: Keeping the wheels moving allows the tires to maintain rolling friction. This friction allows the driver to stop easier and safer, and steer the vehicle around the hazard rather than into it. The main purpose of ABS is to allow steering under hard braking. ABS often does not stop a car quicker than a trained driver with threshold braking. However, it will stop a vehicle very quickly, especially with new technologies like pre-charged braking systems, allowing the driver to focus on steering around a hazard.
How it works: ABS includes four basic components: speed sensors, the pump, valves and a computer controller. The speed sensor is attached to each brake wheel assembly and measures how fast the wheel is turning. The computer uses this information to determine the difference in speed of each wheel relative to the others. If one wheel is slowing down much faster than the rest, it's usually a sign the brake wheel is ready to lock up. When that happens, the valves regulate pressure to that wheel. No matter how hard you press the brake pedal, the valve prevents any further pressure from making it to that particular brake wheel, preventing lockup. The valve then releases pressure as needed. Once the system begins to stabilize, the ABS pump replaces the lost pressure the valve removed. This all happens in milliseconds.
What it feels like: When the ABS activates, valve pressure modulation results creates a pulsation, or "shudder" in the brake pedal that can be mild or severe.
How to train with it: While ABS is best trained in a controlled environment, it doesn't require a lot of speed or space to engage. Training basically requires running the vehicle up to 35 mph or so, then standing on the brake pedal till you feel the pulsation in the pedal and hear the system engaging. As you come to a stop, steer left or right to get a feel of what the ABS is doing to help you maintain rolling steering friction.
There is one caveat to ABS: If you overheat your brakes the point of fade, it generally won't engage because there won't be sufficient brake friction to cause potential lock-up. So, while it can save your bacon, it is not a panacea to overly aggressive driving.
Important note: There are a slew of new braking technologies out there right now that do one of two things: They either "pre-charge" the braking system for maximum braking upon sensing a significant change in driver behavior, or they actually rely on radar to detect imminent crashes and automatically apply braking force. The key here is that the first system does not apply the brakes automatically, while the second does. As an example, while the Dodge Charger has brake assist systems like Ready Alert Braking and Rain Brake Support, the system only assists in braking that the driver has to induce. By contrast, the new Crash Imminent Braking system on the 2014 Chevrolet Impala will actually apply brakes on its own if it senses an impending crash. So, if you're ordering new cars, explore what braking technologies are out there—and train your officers on them.
Traction Control Systems
These days, all vehicles are required to have stability control systems that also feature traction control systems as many of the system sensors are shared by ABS, traction control and stability control. Still, it's important to differentiate each.
What it is: Basically, the traction control is used to either limit wheel spin on a given drive wheel when it loses traction to allow for grip to be regained, to alter the driving dynamics of a vehicle by slowing down a particular wheel. Note: This is different than stability control as it is improving chassis behavior, not correcting a bad situation.
How it works: When wheel speed sensors in the ABS system detect an increase in wheel rotation of a particular wheel relative to the others, it deduces that traction has been lost and automatically applies barking force to that wheel to reduce its speed and reduce wheel slip. In some cases, engine power is also reduced.
What it feels like: The first sensation is the gas pedal will feel useless, and you will look in the rear view to see who threw out the anchor as the car will slow down in an attempt to regain traction. Relax. This is normal. Once the system determines that you're indeed worthy to have full power again, the vehicle will leap back to normal. This change can surprise you if you aren't prepared.
How to train with it: The easiest thing way to engage traction control is to find a surface with a low coefficient of drag, and attempt to induce wheel spin in a straight line through aggressive throttle application. The second way is through a simple 90-degree cornering exercise. Because of weight transfer to the outside of a vehicle during cornering, the inner drive wheel on a FWD, RWD and even AWD vehicle can be prone to losing traction.
The most common situation in real life is turning onto a busy street from a driveway or side street and hammering the throttle at the same time. When this happens, the opposite of what you expect can happen; the car will slow down as power is cut or brake force is applied to the spinning wheel. Obviously, the best solution is being smooth with the throttle, but since the entire point of training on these systems is to know how they feel when activated, incorporate hard acceleration in a straight line and on a tight right and left hard turns to feel the system engage. Use a variety of surfaces to learn how early and how intrusive the system is.
Stability Control
What it is: Stability control systems use the same sensors as ABS and traction control, in addition to other components to address lateral (side-to-side) motions of the vehicle associated with chassis behavior. The system is called many names, but all of the systems operate under essentially the same principles.
How it works: Stability control takes traction control and ABS and adds steering-angle sensors and a yaw sensor. It also uses throttle position and transmission behavior to reliably predict dynamically what the car is doing and why.
The most important sensor is yaw. Yaw is movement of an object as it rotates on a vertical axis. In other words, when your vehicle starts to spin, and the lateral forces make the rear end want to touch the front end of your car, blame it on the yaw. When that begins to happen, the yaw sensor determines that you're about to get in over your head and works with a lateral-force sensor as well as the steering-wheel sensor to evaluate if the car is starting to rotate more than it should be based on the amount of steering dialed in. If the answer is yes, the system begins to apply braking force to one or several individual wheels to "steer" the vehicle back toward its intended path by slowing one corner of the car down. In some cases, the system can also reduce power and torque to assist in traction and weight transfer.
How to train with it: Stability control is easily induced in one of two ways. The first is through the use of a 10–15-cone straight-line slalom. The dynamic requirements of making a vehicle literally make a complete lane change from side-to-side every 45–60 feet will definitely activate the system once speed and lateral load reach a point where the car is beginning to understeer (slide up front) or oversteer (slide in the rear). When this happens, the application of single-wheel braking, power reduction, and even steering assist in some cases, will be readily apparent.
The second way is through the use of a single-to-multiple lane crash avoidance exercise. The instant dynamic change required to successfully enter the proper avoidance lane will often activate the system.
Most law enforcement vehicles have stability control systems that are calibrated for more aggressive driving. In some cases it can be disabled. While it is never recommended that the systems be disabled on the street, incorporating it into a controlled training exercise will clearly show what the system is capable of doing, and what the vehicle would feel like without it. The final caveat: Any training should occur under controlled conditions with qualified EVOC instructors overseeing the process, in the vehicles you use on the street.
Conclusion
In today's tenuous financial environment, departments are faced with serious training budget deficiencies. Officers are in serious need and want of regular driver training. We can't snap our fingers and make millions of dollars appear for driver training, but all the training exercises outlined above can easily be done in a moderate sized parking lot or another open space. If you have an EVOC track available, even better.
As for the driver part of the equation, I'll say this: an old-school Crown Vic with the right driver can keep up with a modern patrol car on a tight EVOC course. But that's a story for a future article. In the meantime, incorporate these exercises into your training protocols.