Getting defensive – Tactics training now required for all officers

Date Posted: May 26, 2009

ALBION — In police parlance, it’s called going “hands-on” — a physical confrontation with a combative person.

Starting this year, all officers in the Hoosier state forced to deal with these potentially dangerous situations are going to be a little more prepared.

For the first time, the Indiana Law Enforcement Academy has mandated each active duty police officer receive at least two hours of defensive tactics training annually.

It won’t be a big change for some departments.

According to Auburn Police Chief Martin McCoy, his department already requires the training be done on an annual basis. The same is true at the LaGrange, Noble and Steuben county sheriff’s departments.

“I believe all officers should refresh with some type of defensive tactics on a regular basis,” McCoy said.

Steuben County Sheriff Rick Lewis agreed.

“It’s like any profession,” Lewis said. “If you don’t continue to train… you lose that edge.”

It will be a change for some departments, however. When Kendallville Police Department defensive tactics instructor Mike Carroll left KPD for the Indiana State Police, that department was left without an in-house trainer.

According to Police Chief Rob Wiley, his department will be filling its mandate with the assistance of the Noble County Sheriff’s Department.

“I think it’s really important,” Wiley said. “You are less likely to have to hurt a subject when you are taking them into custody. (Also) the officers are more confident. They can use less forceful measures and still get the job done.”

It makes the officers themselves safer as well, Wiley said.

The training mandate is part of a mini-revolution going on in regards to the means and times officers use physical force to subdue a person.

For years, officers have been trained using what is called the force continuum. Recognized by the courts, the force continuum deals with what level of force an officer could and should use in any given situation. Levels of resistance are broken down into six categories. Levels of force are broken down into five categories.

Police are trained with a “plus one” rule. Faced with a level one resistor (psychological resistance), officers could use a level two amount of force (verbal direction), according to the force continuum.

The force continuum is being phased out in some circles, replaced with a threat matrix.

The threat matrix takes into account time of day, the ambient light, the size and gender of the person being dealt with and the proximity of other officers.

An officer faced with a potentially armed man would react differently depending on such factors as how close his nearest backup is, the size of the man, how visible the area is.

It takes the cookie-cutter approach to the use of force to a new, more applicable level.

Noble County Chief Deputy Doug Harp, a certified defensive tactics instructor, gave an example of an incident which has been captured on video on the Web site YouTube.com to illustrate the difference between the train of thoughts between force continuum and the threat matrix.

In the Las Vegas incident, officers are faced with a man who is refusing to comply with their verbal directions. He has his hands stuffed into his pockets and is refusing to remove them so officers can determine if he has a weapon.

“Old school” tactics would call for the officers to wrestle the man’s hands out of his pockets for him.

In the video, the officer uses a defensive tactic technique to quickly take the subject to the ground and subdue him.

There is no fight. The officer is not injured. The subject is not injured.

On the video, the takedown move by the officer is done in one fluid motion.

“That is a good example of how they’re trying to get officers to think,” Harp said.

Which is where mandated training by the state comes into play.

Harp and fellow instructor Deputy Brian Walker, recently held an eight-hour defensive tactics course in the Noble County Jail.

Attending were reserve or full-time officers from the Noble County Sheriff’s Department, Kendallville Police Department, Ligonier Police Department, Ashley Police Department and Steuben County Community Corrections.

The class began with an hour of classroom instruction, with a discussion of the force continuum and threat matrix.

“The situation dictates what you are going to do,” Walker said.

After the classroom instructions, officers got hands-on instruction on multiple ways to quickly subdue a subject without causing any lasting physical harm. The techniques taught included various striking methods with hands and feet, and the use of pressure points and finger- and wrist-locks.

The techniques can be the difference between an arrest and an officer suffering serous injury.

“First and foremost in my mind, it’s about officer safety,” Harp said. “You have to go home (safely). Whatever it takes, you have to go home.”

Secondly, the techniques are proven to do minimal real physical harm to those being detained.

“We don’t want to hurt them,” Harp said.

Officers had the opportunity to see the techniques demonstrated by Harp, Walker and Kendallville Police Department defensive tactics expert Chris Streich, then got to try them on each other. Officers learned everything from pressure points which can be used effectively to correct areas for striking a person.

Officers also received a refresher course on different handcuffing techniques.

The key to learning all of the techniques taught by Walker and Harp is practice, both officers said.

With the ILEA’s new mandate, all police will soon become more proficient.

By – Matt Getts – KPC Media