The conference portion of the TREXPO East ( www.TREXPO.com ) conference and trade show kicked off yesterday in Chantilly, Va., with an exciting schedule of hands-on classes and informative seminars.

Tac Med
Continuing a program that was inaugurated at TREXPO West back in March, this year’s TREXPO East included a Tactical Medical conference track. As at TREXPO West, the Tac Med program was a huge success, attracting standing room only crowds.

One of the highlights of the Tac Med conference was a two-hour-long presentation on wound ballistics by trauma surgeon Dr. Sydney Vail. Using data that he has gathered from autopsies and from his experience with gunshot patients who survived, Vail revealed the limitations of traditional handgun and rifle ammo. He also argued that autopsy data is the only accurate measure of bullet performance for police duty ammo. Vail says that police should consider carrying extreme high-velocity ammo such as LeMas https://www.lemasltd.com/  pistol rounds in their duty weapons.

Hands On
Attendees who signed up for the Close-Quarter Combatives class taught by the Police Combative Training Academy were probably a little disappointed when they learned that master instructor Hans Marrero was unable to make it to TREXPO East. They soon learned that they didn’t need to be. The class was in good hands, as Marrero’s long-time training partner and veteran SWAT officer Louis Marquez and newcomer David James took over.

TREXPO attendees may have been unfamiliar with James, but they were clearly impressed once the class began. Ranked 20th in “street self-defense” by Black Belt magazine, James is a 10th-degree black belt in Vee-Arnis-Jitsu and a master of edged-weapon offense and defense. Students at the TREXPO class were impressed with the fact that James’ techniques are easily recalled in combat situations and can be learned by officers who are not in tip-top athletic shape. One told me that the techniques are “great for an older officer like me because they don’t require any fine motor skills.”

Applied Technology
If you’re confused at all about how to evaluate night vision equipment or how such equipment may be of use to you in your day-to-day law enforcement operations, then you should have been at TREXPO East today for David Narkevicius’ night vision class. The four-hour class was an excellent introductory course on night vision equipment and each attendee got some hands-on time with products from ITT, Night Optics, NVS, and Sensor Tech.

Prison Gangs on the Streets
PoliceMag.com columnist Richard Valdemar once again brought his encyclopedic knowledge of Southern California gangs to TREXPO East. In a captivating four-hour class, Valdemar, a retired Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Sergeant and a world-renown expert on Hispanic gang culture, traced the roots of growing Hispanic gangs nationwide, including the notorious Mara Salvatrucha 13, to the Mexican Mafia. The class also included valuable information on Nuestra Familia-affiliated gangs, African American gangs affiliated with the Black Guerilla Family such as the Crips and Bloods, and white gangs affiliated with the Aryan Brotherhood. Valdemar explained how the four primary California prison gangs control street and prison gang activity nationwide.