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Thinking of becoming a Safety Officer?

Great! Thank you for your interest in supporting your sport and wanting to help your fellow shooters have a safe and enjoyable experience.

Safety Officer Responsibilities:

Focus on the shooter’s firing hand and gun.
Remember that the shooter is always given the benefit of any doubt.
Run contestants through a course of fire safely and smoothly so that the shooter may enjoy the shooting experience.
Treat the shooter with courtesy and respect.
Answer all questions regarding the CoF.
Control all details of the CoF.
Define all muzzle safe points as directed by the CoF and range.
SO should generally stand about three (3) feet to the side and three (3) feet to the rear of the shooter. The safety officer must be aware of his position as the competitor reholsters.
The SO should be on the gun hand side of the shooter. The gun-hand side changes depending on CoF requirements.
SO should make sure they stay with the shooter, but not in the shooter’s way.

Prerequisites for becoming a Safety Officer:

Be rated at least MM in at least one class.
Have at least a year of IDPA experience and a minimum of 10 matches.
Display solid understanding of safety practices and IDPA rules
Have a helpful attitude.
Be recommended by a MD or club governor familiar with your IDPA skills and attitude if the instructor does not know you personally from IDPA.

These are general guidelines. The instructor has discretion to deviate from these.

The Safety Officer Class covers:

Safety rules.
Competition rules.
Equipment rules.
Range commands.
How to explain a CoF.
How to run a CoF.
What to concentrate on.
Penalties.
Differences between divisions.
How to set up a CoF.
How to run the Classifier.
Course Design.

The class runs approximately 8 1/2 hours and is roughly half in the classroom and half on the range.
There is a closed book written test covering material from the rulebook.