Police patrol officers are the foundation of modern policing and public safety. Patrol officers are usually the first on scene — from crimes in progress, to accidents, to emergencies needing immediate action. Their routine presence in neighborhoods, on streets, and at public events is one of the main deterrents against crime.
They deal not just with crime, but with community issues — disturbances, mental health crises, lost kids, traffic problems — all the “glue” that holds social order together. Patrol officers gather a ton of real-world information that feeds investigations, intelligence, and crime prevention efforts.
They’re the face of policing for the public. Good patrol work builds community trust — bad patrol work damages it. Whether it’s terrorism, organized crime, or just evolving criminal tactics, it’s patrol officers who often encounter new threats first and adjust ground-level tactics.
In a way, you could say:
Without strong patrol work, the rest of the policing system would have very shaky ground to stand on. Patrol officers live at the edge of chaos, every shift.
They are the tip of the spear — but also the most vulnerable part of it. The reality is that patrol officers are constantly exposed to many dangers in their work environment:
- Constant public contact: Patrol deals with everyone — the drunk, the violent, the mentally ill, the desperate, the dangerous — often without any prior warning about what they’re walking into.
- Unpredictable environments: Traffic stops, domestic violence calls, suspicious person calls, burglaries in progress — all of these are routinely deadly scenarios without much chance for preparation.
- Front line for violence: Statistically, patrol officers are at the highest risk for being assaulted, ambushed, or killed compared to any other division (like detectives or specialized units).
- Emotional exposure: They also face emotional trauma daily — seeing death, serious injury, family tragedy, hopelessness — all while needing to stay calm and professional.
- Tactical disadvantage: Patrol often has to respond alone or with minimal backup to rapidly evolving, high-threat situations, sometimes outgunned or with incomplete information.
Thats why high-quality training for police patrol officers is critical, but the reality is:
- Formal academy training is basic: Academies mostly teach minimum standards — legal basics, firearms qualification, defensive tactics, driving, first aid. It’s like giving someone a driver’s license, not training them for F1 racing.
- On-the-job training varies wildly: After the academy, officers depend on field training and agency culture. Some agencies have great programs; others have almost none beyond “just survive.”
- Not enough scenario-based training: Real-world, stress inoculation training — like realistic shoot/no-shoot drills, complex communication under stress, de-escalation under chaos — is rare and often underfunded.
- Skills decay fast: Firearms, combatives, medical skills, even communication techniques — all degrade without frequent, realistic practice. Most officers barely get to maintain proficiency, let alone advance.
- Cultural resistance: Some agencies or supervisors discourage extra training, which reinforces minimum standards thinking instead of real mastery.
- Limited focus on modern threats: Many programs don’t evolve fast enough — active shooters, ambushes, complex vehicle stops, public space attacks, mental health crises — patrol is facing 21st-century problems with a 20th-century training model.
Patrol officers need regular, realistic, and evolving training to survive and protect others effectively — but systemically, most are undertrained for what they actually face.
We at Black Bear Solution recognise the problems of modern police work and formal training limitations. As a group of motivated active duty police officers and instructors and former special forces members from Slovenia, that love to serve and protect others, we want to bring modern tactics to modern street cops and help with raising standards of safety and lawfulnes of European police officers.
That is why we developed the Police Patrol Tactics (PPT) program.
Our police patrol tactics program is purposely designed for uniformed or plainclothes street police officers working solo or in pairs, that operate in complex environments and respond to everyday threats, active emergencies, and traffic stops in urban settings, with limited resources, equipment and numbers.
The program reflects real-world patrol realities and emphasizes simplicity, decision-making, survivability and lawfulness under varying lighting and environmental conditions. It is a complete combination of modern tactical systems and methodologies that were proven to us over time to be effective for patrol work and is designed on a structured progression of skills, tactics, and force-on-force validation — all tailored to the daily duties of European police patrol officers to safely, lawfully, and professionally confront threats in a complex environments.
The program is based on the Complex Environement Tactics model which takes into account human behavior under stress. Complex Evironment Tactics model is later integrated in the most common police patrol environments:
Open public environment
Inside structures environment
Vehicle proximity environment
Low light environment
The system is designed in three tactical modules:
- Module 1: Complex environment tactics
This module is a tactical base for all the following modules and gives officers a frame work when responding and dealing with threats in a rapidly evolving situation with the presence of other people whose behavior is unpredictable.
In this module, officers will learn how to move and handle weapons safely around other officers and people. It also focuses on human behavior based tactics that manage stress to prevent triggering the activation of the “non-cognitive survival system” — the fight, flight, or freeze response and consequential instinctive, impulsive, and unconscious decisions.
It also covers the basics of low light situations and Force-on-Force (FoF) skill building with micro drills and scenarios in open public environments. - Module 2: Inside structures environment
This module integrates the complex environment tactics into close quarters setting. It is focused on deliberate and safe solo and pair responses inside buildings using the segmented search and working from the door or threshold techniques.
It also covers working around and approaching buildings, rescue speed techniques for active threat situations, working with more patrols simultaneously, low light situations and Force-on-Force skill building with micro drills and scenarios in close quarters environments. - Module 3: Vehicle proximity environment
This module integrates the complex environment tactics into vehicle proximity environments. It is focused on solo and 2-man tactics around vehicles, vehicle ballistics, bailouts and fighting from inside the car.It also covers high-risk vehicle stops techniques, low light situations and Force-on-Force skill building with micro drills and scenarios around and inside vehicles.
Our program is tought in 4-day, 2-day and 1-day course formats:
- 4-Day Police Patrol Tactics course (PPT – 1)
This »flagship« course is the complete experience. Includes daily micro FoF and a full validation day with realistic pressure and mixed environments. Suitable for officers that want structured progression that covers all the basic tactics for patrol work in one package and are not time or budget limited. - 2-Day Police Patrol Tactics – inside structures course (PPT – 2)
This 2-day course is basically the 4-day complete program course cut in half. It is suitable for officers that want to focus only on inside structures tactics duo time or budget limitations or as a skill refresher. - 2-Day Police Patrol Tactics – vehicle proximity course (PPT – 3)
This 2-day course is basically the 4-day complete program course cut in half. It is suitable for officers that want to focus only on vehicle proximity tactics duo time or budget limitations or as a skill refresher. - 1-Day Police Patrol Tactics – hybrid workshop (PPT workshop 1)
Serves as a validation and skill building workshop focused on all patrol level tactics. Suitable for returning students who want to refine and refresh their already learnt skills or outside students that want to test their skills in mixed environments. - 1-Day Police Patrol Tactics – inside structures workshop (PPT workshop 2)
Serves as a validation and skill building workshop focused on solo and patrol level CQB. Suitable for returning students who want to refine and refresh their already learnt skills or outside students that want to test their skills in CQB patrol environment. - 1-Day Police Patrol Tactics – vehicle proximity workshop (PPT workshop 3)
Serves as a validation and skill building workshop focused on solo and patrol level vehicle proximity tactics. Suitable for returning students who want to refine and refresh their already learnt skills or outside students that want to test their skills in vehicle proximity environment.
The 1-day workshops are heavy FoF scenario focused and are not meant to teach but rather stress test and build already known skills multiple times a year to keep students fresh and sharp year round.
