To Protect and Serve...Drive to Survive!

To Protect and Serve...Drive to Survive!
Train as if your life depended on it! It does!

Thursday, May 7, 2009

The Beginning of EVOC

Today we start at the beginning...

For the last 30 years, I've been a police officer (now a lieutenant) with a keen interest in emergency vehicle operations training, specifically pursuit and high performance driving techniques. After making my way through the streets of San Diego as a young cop, my interest in 1986 turned to the training field. I joined the Driver Training staff at the San Diego Police Academy where I continue to teach EVOC to new police recruits, deputy sheriffs and seasoned veterans. The last 24+ years have been great but I have noticed a sad trend develop - that of officers losing their lives as a result of police car crashes, many a solo vehicle collision with no outside cause factors other than unsafe speed for conditions.

Since 1990, I have championed the idea of building an Emergency Vehicle Operations Center here in San Diego County, home to some of the finest police officers and deputy sheriffs I know. Many of us trained on an old backup military airfield (Hourglass Field) in Mira Mesa, now home to Miramar College, one of my employers. Today, this area has given way to expansion of Miramar College, one of the fastest growing community colleges in California. So the search has been on for a new site for several years....