This week's EVOC Insider is supported by Easydrift
Easydrift's five-day emergency vehicle operation instructor course simulates high-speed response in a safe and controlled environment. Designed specifically for first responders, it helps operators learn their vehicle's limitations, their own limitations, and every aspect of car control while on a Code 3. We guarantee you will become a better instructor and, for fun, a better driver.
"After 18 years in law enforcement, you think this is just another driving class… no big deal. Boy was I wrong."
Sergeant Rob Long, Cullman Police Department, Alabama
Probably Nothing
One afternoon I was riding with an officer when we were dispatched to an unknown 911 hang-up. We weren't too far from the address.
On the way, he said what a lot of officers would have been thinking: "It's probably just another international call."
He had good reason to think so.
The Calls We Stop Taking Seriously
The region I train officers for is incredibly diverse. A lot of families here call relatives in India. The country code is 91, and some city codes there start with 1. Forget the 011 at the front, and a call meant for family on the other side of the world becomes a 911 call that hangs up.
The result is a high volume of unknown-trouble 911 hang-ups. Because the nature of the call is unknown, they're dispatched as emergency responses, as they should be.
But officers know the pattern. When you've driven to dozens of these calls that turned out to be a misdial, a little voice starts telling you it's probably another one. That voice is complacency, and it's dangerous.
Three Steps
And yet my officer's driving said something else. He slowed down and cleared every major intersection. He used the natural gaps in traffic. He was patient with the vehicles in front of us. No heroics, no forcing it. We arrived in a very effective time.
As we got closer, we talked through how we'd handle it. Probably a misdial: we'd confirm everyone was okay and clear. Not a perfect tactical plan, but it was a plan, and we made those decisions together.
I can still see what happened next.
There were three steps up to the porch. As we reached the first step, the front door flew open. A man in his fifties stood there. No words, just a look of pure fear on his face. He turned and ran back into the house and up the stairs, stopped halfway, turned around, and frantically waved at us to come.
We followed him up to the main living area. A woman was standing over the dining room table with an infant lying on it. The baby was turning blue. The child was choking.
My officer stepped in, took the baby, turned the child face-down, and delivered back blows until the obstruction cleared.
We found out later they were the grandparents, looking after their granddaughter.
That baby is alive today because that officer did his job well, all of it, starting with the drive.
What That Call Taught Me
That day reminded me that complacency cannot be tolerated. Even on the calls we've seen a hundred times, we still have to perform and respond accordingly, and we have to do it professionally.
Here's what struck me most. My officer expected a misdial. But he didn't let that expectation change how he drove, and he didn't let it override his gut when we hit that porch. Had he driven with the "it's nothing" mindset and been slower to get there, or driven like it was the call of his life and never made it at all, that story ends very differently.
Professional emergency driving isn't about the fastest possible time. It's about a consistent, strategic approach that gets you there safely, every time, in a condition to help.
For Instructors: This Is Our Job
Every so often, our rookie officers come back for a follow-up training day after some time on the road with their coach officers. I always ask them the same thing: tell me about your first emergency responses.
The answers are telling.
One rookie lights up: "My heart was pounding, my eyes were racing, and we just went." Lights on, siren on, foot down. That's the whole story.
Another tells me their coach officer talked them through the drive as it happened. Where the next gap was. Why they were slowing for this intersection. What they'd do when they arrived.
Only one of those is a professional emergency response.
I've ridden through a lot of emergency responses in 25-plus years. Too many were nothing more than an adrenaline dump. No plan, no active thinking, just lights, siren, and as much speed as the car and the road would allow. That isn't professional. It's a reaction.
We can't control which coach officer a rookie gets. But we can control what they bring with them when they leave us. A few ways to build it:
Put the arrival in the drive. Have students talk through what they'll do when they get there before they get there. The drive is the first part of the call, not a separate event.
Name complacency. Talk openly about the calls officers stop taking seriously. Students should know the pattern exists and why it can't change how they respond.
Make them talk. Commentary driving forces the plan out loud. If a student can't tell you what they're doing and why at 100 km/h (60 mph), they don't have a plan; they have an adrenaline response.
Train consistency, not intensity. A student's first response and their five-hundredth response should look the same. Reward the smooth, repeatable drive over the fast one.
Be the coach in the second story. Students drive the way they see us drive.
The rookie with the pounding heart isn't a bad officer. They just haven't been shown a better way yet. That's where we come in.
Your Turn
Every region has its version of the unknown 911 hang-up. What's yours? What's the call your officers have stopped taking seriously, and how do you train against it?
Hit reply. I'd like to hear them.
Stay safe, and keep teaching the plan.
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Hugh Anderson EVOC Trainer | Author of Emergency Vehicle Operation Instruction: 5 Steps to Enhancing Your EVOC Training Grab the book on Amazon
