Do British or American police officers know any Martial Arts?
Do British or even American police officers train in any form of martial arts whilst at police academy?
So if an average bobby was on his beat and found him self alone with no truncheon or back up and came face to face with a skilled martial artist would he know what to do?
( im just asking this for personal curiosity, relax im not planning on doing anything like this)
September 4, 2010 | Filed Under Sports
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14 Responses to “Do British or American police officers know any Martial Arts?”
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Police generally have very minimal martial arts knowledge….however they tend to think they know a great deal more than they do…. lol
Well I live in the United States and trust me the police do not know any Martial Arts whatsoever!
Sure they can learn it but they dont use it as defence. They just use guns and handcuffs! lol!
Well I can’t speak for UK Police.
American Police are taught a lot of restraint and defensive tactics techniques, while in the Academy. A lot of them also supplement this with their own training in Martial Arts.
But because of the way America is, they are forced to only rely on certain "approved" techniques in order to reduce the possibility of litagation or having someone get off on a technicality.
Like anything else if an officer doesn’t constantly work on DT (defensive tactics) it really isn’t of use to him because he is ineffective at it. Most of them improvise some sort of restraint techniques on their own, having back up, weapons and such also is helpful.
Again, no idea about UK Police.
But here you rarely find an off duty cop without his gun, or some sort of weapon. They are even allowed to carry it in many places conceal and carry people are not.
I think if any cop is on his beat it doesn’t matter who he comes up against, he still is going to have back up and a few weapons (Pepper spray, tazers, beat sticks, tactical knives, guns.. yes, primary and a back up).
But hand to hand wise, most cops are A type personalities, they generally do end up doing some sort of hand to hand training, the ones that do not are just as succeptable to an asskicking as anyone else. The difference is 90% of the time they will have the law on their side.
Again, I can’t speak for UK Police, only Americans.
Many American police officers do train in some form of martial arts. In fact one common way for up and coming fighters to make money is to teach at police academies. The Ref Big John McCarthy was/is a Police instructor.
I would imagine any law enforcement officer would have to know and train in hand to hand and restraint or compliance techniques such as come-alongs, wrist pressure locks, arm locks and takedowns. Officers, esp here in the US, are not allowed to bash a suspect’s brains in. They need to exert control to apprehend the suspect. I work next to a police academy and have observed many of their hand to hand classes in the gym.
i had several instructors that were police officers. and as judomofo said they do learn techniques in the academy. it vary’s from city to city as to what they are taught. some cities have a regular martial arts program. but not all.
the uk i have no idea what they do there.
In the UK they are taught VERY minimal control and restraint techniques. However, the majority of them seek additional training in their own spare time to supplement. Understandable considering they do a dangerous job for which they receive laughable training. i was genuinely shocked when the first police officer joined our dojo and we realised he couldnt control a puppy on a leash! – no fault of his own remember!
My father was a police officer in the UK and I know he with other officers was sent on an Aikido course.
It is a fact of life that in general, the governing organisations of law enforcement officers do not provide the Regular close quarter combat and restraint training that their officers need. Regular training is needed for officers to reasonably cope with the violent situations that are characteristic of their day-to-day duties.
Police officers are correct in drawing their weapon and backing off from trouble, getting help. At close quarters they are in great danger of being knifed or otherwise overwhelmed.
No matter how well trained; there is no guarantee of success and safety in close confrontations.
The law enforcement officers that I have seen with were all far too busy to easily spare the regular training time that they needed to be competent in hand-to-hand situations. Therefore you have to cull and design a training program that meets their specific needs and, unfortunately, leave alone a lot of the basics that martial arts would consider to be essential. Officers are also loaded down with gear and must cover their exposed weapon. FBI agents don’t have the problem of heavy gear around the hips and their weaponry is discrete. This allows more flexibility for them in the choice of techniques. But still, some FBI agents are often heavily overworked, at call, and would have to be taken off duty to do the refresher causes that they need.
Because of the circumstances of officers with gear, legal and time constraints, the usual martial arts are of little use to them. Law departments that do want competent officers, do not rely on the officers getting their own outside training. They elect to have a specialised composite art taught in house and/ or specialists brought in for classes. There are available a large number of made-up arts with made-up names that are taught to officers.
The value of a truncheon, or the like, is the extra safety and attack distance that it provides. It is a useful tool against a knife (but not a guarantee of success), and keeping a great distance away from a knife wielding opponent is much safer. Unfortunately the police are actually expected to protect the public and restrain violent persons; and later in the courts having to fight to prove that they themselves are not criminals (unless they were injured or dead when they would then not be expected to humiliatingly justify themselves).
A martial artist of any standing, though holding no implement of violence, would be considered to be ‘armed’ with their combat ability. If an armed officer, confronts such a combat or martial art trained person, the officer should stay at a distance, draw a weapon and demand compliance. If the officer is unarmed then they would be at extreme disadvantage and danger, unless the officer was also highly trained. But how to judge who was the superior without the test of combat? When an unarmed officer knows that a suspect is skilled in combat, that officer should stand off and get backup.
Some train in krav maga
check kravmaga.com
Depends on the individual.
I know that there are several police officers that train with my instructor and I know several officers from England that also train that I have met at international tournaments.
Keep in mind that not everyone trains, but anything can happen on any given day even to an experienced and well trained martial artist.
depends on the person and what they do on the free time but the us police train in some hand to hand combat in the academy but they don’t practice once they get out of the academy. I can not speak for the UK police
Hi there
Here in the UK its a a bit of a joke to be honest. Most of the police officers are taught very little but then again most of them seem to be about 12 years old!
I have trained with a few over the years. Its not their fault but the system and tick boxes they have to play with!
We like to do policing on the cheap or for free in the UK but as long as the stats say everything is ok then the public seem to buy it?
Best wishes
idai
Yes they do, usually more of wrestling martial arts that focus on locks , but they just learn the basics and a few advanced locks and takedowns.