The Science Behind One Man Room Clearing Tactics: Peek or Push

In the tactical world, there is nothing more hotly debated than room clearing techniques. Guys will argue until they are blue in the face about the merits of their favorite tactic. Unfortunately, there is a distinct lack of empirical data on the efficacy of various room clearing tactics, and until this point, there was literally zero research on one man room clearance. This article is going to cover an excellent piece of research which asks which one man room clearing techniques are most advantageous.

In order to minimize angry comments from keyboard warriors, I would like to point out that I am by no means a tactical expert. I’m a Marine that got a hold of a Hooked on Phonics tape. So don’t come at me bro!

Next, I’m simply going to be presenting this research with some of my thoughts on the outcomes and recommendations. Feel free to disagree all you want, but I think you’ll be surprised regarding the conclusions.

Peek or Push: An Examination of Two Types of Room Clearing Tactics for Active Shooter Event Response

This piece of research was conducted by Dr. Hunter Martaindale, Dr. Pete Blair, and Dr. William L. Sandel. These researchers noted that law enforcement officers have made drastic changes to active shooter, and active violence responses.

In years past, officers would routinely form a perimeter and call SWAT. That is no longer acceptable. Most departments are now pushing for the first officers on scene to make immediate entry on these violent calls for service. This trend is only increasing, with many departments allowing officers to make solo entries, to put an end to these violent encounters.

Before we go further, I want to point out that room clearance is always dangerous, and one man room clearance is incredibly dangerous. You should think of one man room clearance as a tactic of last resort, not a go to move.

I should also point out that these research findings are not only applicable to law enforcement officers, they are equally applicable to military and tactical units, and to any person who owns and carries a firearm for self defense.

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Check out this video where Jason Falla demos some urban movement / one man room clearing techniques.

If you want to read even more about CQB and room clearing research then check out this article where I discuss more research from these authors. Enjoy!

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The Experiment

The researchers wanted to examine the safety and efficacy of two styles of solo room entry, the peek, or the push. They used a corner fed room (pictured below) and placed all the experimental participants in the blind corner of this corner fed room.

The blind corner of the room refers to the portion of the room that cannot be seen from the doorway without looking (peek) or moving into the room (push). This room is classified as corner fed because the entrance is in one of the corners of the room. If it was in the center of the wall it would be a center fed room.

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The Scenario

Each participant was placed into the blind corner of the room and given a training firearm with a paint marking cartridge that fired a round at 300 feet per second. They were told they that they, the criminal, had just murdered someone, and were waiting to ambush the police officer from the corner of the room. They were given one round and were told to shoot the officer, who was a researcher, when they saw them.

The researcher then performed either a peek, where they leaned into the room and engaged the suspect from the doorway, or they made a hybrid style room entry, pushing into the room at a 45 degree angle. The researcher had one blank round they fired at the participant. Overall they completed a total of 147 randomly sequenced room entries.

The Results

The researchers discovered some interesting phenomena after gathering their data. In the peek condition, the participants shot the officer 33% of the time. In the push condition, the participants shot the officer 44% of the time.

They noted that this difference was small and not statistically significant. That means that they did not perform enough trials to prove this small difference wasn’t just chance. This fact seems to suggest that entering the room (push condition) is the least preferred tactic right? Not so fast!

The accuracy of the bad guy’s shot, and the placement of the rounds on the officer were much different between these two conditions, check the graphic out below.

The researchers also specified that a hit in the hand, for the peek condition, was essentially a head hit, as the round is very likely to pass through the hand into the head or neck. With this in mind, here are the totals for hits that would have immediately incapacitated the officer.

In the peek condition, there were 11 hits that would have likely been immediately fatal. In the push condition there were 6 such hits. All other hits were distributed as depicted above. They also noted that it took participants an average of .76 seconds to shoot the officer, in the peek condition, and .64 seconds to shoot in the push condition.

All in all, these facts indicate that a push entry is likely more survivable in a solo entry scenario. However, we can’t take that to the bank, as in any research there are limitations.

Research Limitations

Remember that research is aimed at answering specific questions. One study can’t tell you which tactic is best for all scenarios. For these specific trials there were some limitations that I think might change your decision to use a particular tactic.

First, only one round was fired by the bad guy hiding in the corner. In real life, they are going to be hosing lead your direction. This is likely to increase the probability of hits on the officer.

Secondly, hits near the door frame are also likely to pass through and hit someone making a peek style entry. Now this isn’t guaranteed, as a brick wall is going to deflect the round, but drywall and wood aren’t going to provide significant protection.

Thirdly, the researchers could not record the officer’s accuracy on the suspect. Recall that they only fired one blank round, and no projectile left their gun. This is a key area for future research, as anyone can tell you that shooting and moving is much harder than shooting while stationary.

Fourthly, a solo room entry on a center fed room would have resulted in a much higher hit percentage on the officer, as they can only clear one corner at once, leaving them open to a 50% chance of getting shot in the back. This is why 99% of the time two people are dedicated to clearing a room at a minimum!

Finally, I would be interested in the results had the officers taken a knee or otherwise changed their height when peeking. This would cause the bad guy to have to shift their point of aim to successfully hit the target, thus slowing them down, and giving the officer a greater chance of first round hits.

Final Thoughts

This is just the first round of more studies to come from these researchers, and I’m sure they will address some of these research limitations in future papers.

Remember what I said above. These results are not meant to be taken as gospel, and I’m not telling you which one you should do. You should seek out training, from qualified individuals, who’ve actually made these tactical decisions in real life.

I imagine if you pose this question to them, they are going to tell you that you shouldn’t enter a room where you know someone is waiting to ambush you. At the very least, you shouldn’t enter it in the time and place of their choosing. I hope this was an interesting read. Now get out there and get training.