Authors & Contributors

Dave Young

Director of Specialized Programming

Dave Young is the director of specialized programming for RedMan Training at Northcentral Technical College. He has more than 20 years of combined civilian and military law enforcement and training experience, having served as a certified corrections and law enforcement officer in Florida, and as a gate sentry, patrol officer, watch commander, investigator, and Special Reaction Team leader and commander in the U.S. Marine Corps. Young is recognized as one of the leading defensive tactics instructors specializing in crowd management, chemical munitions, specialty impact munitions, protocol and selection of gear and munitions, ground defense tactics, and water-based defensive tactics. He is a member of the Police Magazine Advisory Board and a technical advisory board member for the Force Science Research Center.

Written by Dave Young

Article

Surviving as a Hostage

Someone planning to abduct you will follow you to gather information that will aid in your...

As police officers (and especially if you work corrections) in the United States or Canada, you have to ask this question: What would you do if you were taken hostage?

Article

Pre-Attack Indicators

If your hands are down by your side, you're not in the best possible tactical position. A better...

Learn how to tell someone is about to assault you long before they make their first move.

Article

Change Your Thinking About Gun Grabs

Using a modified power lock from the ground, completing the move pulls the attacker down to the...

Do you have the training and gear to protect your duty weapon or are you just hopeful nothing will happen?

Article

Accessing and Drawing the Tools on Your Belt

Photo: Anthony Sherman, President of Genesis Group

When it comes to your duty belt, the most important question is whether you can get to what you need when you need it.

Article

Make Your Training Real

Training wearing full gear in the water will help officers prepare to swim with extra weight...

If your defensive tactics training doesn't reproduce the conditions you will face on the street, then you are training to fail.

Article

Crowd Management: Preparing for the Storm

The good news is that crowd management and crowd control techniques have been refined over the last few years. The bad news is you're going to need them and more to keep the peace. So this is a good time to review crowd management tactics and prepare yourself for the hard days ahead.

Blog Post

The History of Crowd Management

Riot lines of officers with little protective gear in the 1920s gave way to the use of chemical agents in the 1970s.

Article

Redefining Fit for Duty

An officer's physical fitness is a concern not just because the officers are overweight and might develop a debilitating health condition in their later years. It's an officer survival issue. It could put an officer at a serious disadvantage when he or she faces a more physically fit bad guy who has the mindset to win.

Article

Get Ready to Read the Riot Act

Regardless of the actors involved, when an angry protest hits the streets of your city, you will be called upon to maintain the peace and prevent or stop violence.

Article

How to Deploy Impact Munitions

Today, law enforcement has access to a wide range of impact munitions that can be used for numerous applications. Yes, rubber and wooden baton rounds are still used in riot control, but more sophisticated impact rounds can be used to prevent suicides, to stop dog attacks, and in other uses that might have once required lethal force.