Editor's Note: This is a two part article discussing types and proliferation of ambushing and then how to avoid them or react to them. The second part will be published on the 2nd Monday in September. Until then I highly encourage you to email Bank with any questions or discussions you might have in addition to commenting below. -Ed.

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In a discussion about ambushing, we could go back over a hundred years and more to examine the bushwhackers and ambushers that have taken the lives of many of our fellow law enforcement officers. However, it has been only during the last ten years, and more recently, the last several shootings that have captured our attention. From Birmingham, Alabama, to Oakland, California to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to the RCMP in Alberta, Canada, ambushing is up to 23% annually and climbing since 1996.

In the past twenty years law enforcement has made great progress in tactics and techniques, however, the one tactic we have not developed or trained for is ambushing, or in this case, counter-ambushing. To truly understand counter-ambushing, one needs to understand ambushing.

An ambush is a surprise attack from a concealed position on a moving or temporarily halted target.

Ambushes are classified by category as either (1) hasty or (2) deliberate, (3) point or (4) area, and the more common ones (5) formation, (6) linear or (7) L shaped.

A Hasty Ambush is put in place when you make visual contact with an enemy force and have time to establish an ambush without being detected by the enemy.

A Deliberate Ambush is conducted at a predetermined location and requires detailed information such as size, weapons, and equipment available to the enemy force.

In a Point Ambush, soldiers deploy to attack an enemy in a single kill zone.

In an Area Ambush, soldiers deploy in two or more related point ambushes.

Formation Ambushes seem to be the more common in Law Enforcement.

In the L-shaped Ambush, the assaulters form the long leg parallel to the enemy's direction of movement along the kill zone. The support element forms the short leg at one end of the kill zone and at a right angle to the assault element. This provides both flanking (long leg) and enfilading fire (short leg) against the enemy. The L-shaped ambush can be used at a sharp turn in a road, trail, or stream. It should not be used where the short leg would have to cross a straight road or trail.