I recently attended a safety training conference where a retired Chicago police officer gave a talk on mental focus and situational awareness. He advocated using the “Cooper code” to reduce incidents and mistakes at the jobsite. I had never heard of the “Cooper code,” so I was intrigued.
The late Col. John Dean “Jeff” Cooper (1920-2006) is a legend in the firearms training community. He earned a political science degree from Stanford before receiving a commission from the United States Marine Corps. He fought in the Pacific in World War II and in Korea before retiring as a lieutenant colonel. Cooper taught high school and college classes before he opened one of the nation’s top firearms training schools for law enforcement and military personnel, as well as civilians. In his work, he developed a system of increasing focus levels, which he color coded white to red.