A pleasure to speak at FRA's Law Enforcement Risk Management Summit in Scottsdale, Arizona this week. I love talking to other national experts on Use of Force and sharing my presentation on the "Real Cost of Settling: Winning Use of Force Cases." Training on use of force decision-making and use of force report writing is something we can all incorporate right now in our agencies to reduce claims and avoid costly settlements. Those tools, in addition to building a "culture of support" in our agency, means we are prepared to seek summary judgment in our favor when an officer has made an objectively reasonable use of force decision and then documented it well. I find that agencies that take the time to do this right, pay out a lot less on use of force claims as they draw less use of force complaints. Andy Casavant writes: “By using good tactics, we lower the chance of resistance. By lowering the chance of resistance, we lower the chance of injury. By lowering the chance of injury, we lower the chance of liability.” This same philosophy applies to use of force decision making as the exercise of good tactics and planning mixed with the officer's ability to recognize the objectively reasonable decision in the moment (which only gets easier with practice) absolutely reduces the officer and agency's risk of exposure to any liability.