This is a guest post by Lanny Roark. Observing and Orienting In Conversation The basic principle of “contact and cover” has been a mainstay of law enforcement training for decades. The idea of one officer initiating the contact with a person and another officer(s) providing the cover for the contact officer has served law enforcement well in regard to force protection. Savvy officers however, those trained in the art and science of behavior analysis and threat recognition, know that the cover officer’s role goes far beyond a simple show of force. A properly trained cover officer can be a tremendous asset in observing the cues that are often indicative of a threat.