Webinar

Cops and Cars: Changing the Training Paradigm

Part 1 of the Cops and Cars Webinar Series

Wednesday, August 13, 2025 | 1 pm Eastern [75 minutes]

Why do some officers jump on, or in, a vehicle during a traffic stop when the driver suddenly puts it in gear? Or shoot at vehicles that are coming at them rather than jumping out of the way? Why do officers, in time-compressed and dynamic situations, make decisions that seem to put them at increased risk? Has past training contributed to these situations?

These and other questions dominate the public discourse when incidents involving vehicles go wrong – something underscored by the recent attention on the Barnes v. Felix Supreme Court case. In Part 1 of this webinar series, designed for all law enforcement professionals, we go beyond surface-level explanations to examine the human factors, training paradigms, and legal realities that shape officer behavior during high-stress vehicle-related encounters.

You will learn:

  • How automaticity and neural conditioning influence officer decision-making under pressure.
  • The concept of perception-reaction time (PRT) and how it impacts real-world use-of-force decisions.
  • The effects of looming and perceptual distortion when a vehicle appears to accelerate toward an officer.
  • The implications of recent legal decisions, including Barnes v. Felix, and what they mean for policy and training.  

Presented by:

Chief (Ret.) Mike Ranalli
Market Development Manager, Lexipol		 Chief Ken Wallentine
West Jordan (UT) Police Department
Senior Legal Adviser, Lexipol
 
Laura Scarry
Chief of the Civil Division
McHenry County State’s Attorney’s Office		  
   

Register now