DT... What is it? What are cops taught? What should they be taught?
Here on MT, most of us are pretty serious martial artists. We voluntarily spend several to many (to way too many, if you ask spouses & friends) hours practicing the intricacies of dealing with a person in hand-to-hand combat.
Cops and LEOs in general spend a lot of time putting their training in Defensive Tactics into use, so it stands to reason that they spend a lot of time on it, both in the academy, and in-service training, right?
WRONG! In fact, most law enforcement DT training is pretty brief, and many agencies rarely do in-service DT!
What is DT? Well, it's not only going hands on with someone; DT generally covers all the various issues of protecting oneself from physical assault, as well as the unique areas of policing like handcuffing, searching buildings, handling a crowd... All that stuff that has to do with keeping yourself safe in the field. A pretty typical academy is 6 months or so long. In that time, the recruits will spend one or two weeks on the track, learning to drive. They'll spend another week or two at the range, learning to shoot. They'll have a week or two of odd-ball topics, like first aid/CPR or radar school. So... now we're down to 5 months. Or less. What it ends up amounting to is that a typical DT program would be about 3 to 4 weeks long, at best, if done 8 hours a day, with no other training. But it's rarely taught that way... Instead, most academies I'm familiar with alternate DT training and PT training every day, for about 2 to 3 hours, for about 8 weeks. Yeah... Not much. And when you figure that a couple of those DT days are dedicated to search or arrest training and practice... it gets even shorter. Maybe 40 to 60 hours... and that includes baton!
So... it ends up that most cops get taught a very quick & dirty class with simple, hopefully effective and easily retained techniques. The exact curriculum varies, but generally includes falling, simple knee strikes, low kicks, a couple of check/block techniques, a couple of palm and fist strikes to various targets, a couple of throws or takedowns, and some control holds, as well as a few effective pressure points for control or motivation.
So... within that framework... what would YOU suggest be included? Remember -- it's got to be something that can be taught to someone with no prior experience quickly, and it's got to be scalable to a use of force model. (Cops can't put everyone they deal with into a rear naked choke; that counts as lethal force.)
Here on MT, most of us are pretty serious martial artists. We voluntarily spend several to many (to way too many, if you ask spouses & friends) hours practicing the intricacies of dealing with a person in hand-to-hand combat.
Cops and LEOs in general spend a lot of time putting their training in Defensive Tactics into use, so it stands to reason that they spend a lot of time on it, both in the academy, and in-service training, right?
WRONG! In fact, most law enforcement DT training is pretty brief, and many agencies rarely do in-service DT!
What is DT? Well, it's not only going hands on with someone; DT generally covers all the various issues of protecting oneself from physical assault, as well as the unique areas of policing like handcuffing, searching buildings, handling a crowd... All that stuff that has to do with keeping yourself safe in the field. A pretty typical academy is 6 months or so long. In that time, the recruits will spend one or two weeks on the track, learning to drive. They'll spend another week or two at the range, learning to shoot. They'll have a week or two of odd-ball topics, like first aid/CPR or radar school. So... now we're down to 5 months. Or less. What it ends up amounting to is that a typical DT program would be about 3 to 4 weeks long, at best, if done 8 hours a day, with no other training. But it's rarely taught that way... Instead, most academies I'm familiar with alternate DT training and PT training every day, for about 2 to 3 hours, for about 8 weeks. Yeah... Not much. And when you figure that a couple of those DT days are dedicated to search or arrest training and practice... it gets even shorter. Maybe 40 to 60 hours... and that includes baton!
So... it ends up that most cops get taught a very quick & dirty class with simple, hopefully effective and easily retained techniques. The exact curriculum varies, but generally includes falling, simple knee strikes, low kicks, a couple of check/block techniques, a couple of palm and fist strikes to various targets, a couple of throws or takedowns, and some control holds, as well as a few effective pressure points for control or motivation.
So... within that framework... what would YOU suggest be included? Remember -- it's got to be something that can be taught to someone with no prior experience quickly, and it's got to be scalable to a use of force model. (Cops can't put everyone they deal with into a rear naked choke; that counts as lethal force.)
