Do any departments/academies teach unarmed combative teamwork?

[0ddl0t]

Is this even a thing? I'm curious if you could assign repeatable roles to apprehend unarmed suspects who resist arrest or if every scenario is too different to choreograph in advance. I see lots of video where either 1 officer does all of the work while others stand back and watch or a giant cluster of a dogpile.

[Le Français]

Yes, I and other cadets were trained on such techniques at the police academy (several jobs ago). The biggest issue is not what academies teach; the biggest issue is that in-service hands-on training throughout an officer's career is often woefully lacking. Some places never do refreshers at all. At my current agency, we only get together to train this stuff once a year, but we can opt to attend BJJ classes on the clock.

[BehindBlueI's]

Yes. They tend to suck and even more tend to not be implemented in the field. It tends to be a grab and control what you can grab and control sort of situation in practice.

[kobuksonhwacha]

My agency has adopted a modified version of the Shivworks LEO curriculum as our control tactics program and they're doing a pretty solid job of starting things on the mat and then moving on to integrated scenarios in the sims shoot house. For team tactics the primary strategy is establishing an underhook and wrist or bicep tie to prevent strikes or weapon access, while the second officer shoots for a single or double leg takedown. This technique has worked well for me during cell extractions on much larger dudes with my previous employer so I have a fair degree of confidence in it.

[BehindBlueI's]

My agency has adopted a modified version of the Shivworks LEO curriculum as our control tactics program and they're doing a pretty solid job of starting things on the mat and then moving on to integrated scenarios in the sims shoot house. For team tactics the primary strategy is establishing an underhook and wrist or bicep tie to prevent strikes or weapon access, while the second officer shoots for a single or double leg takedown. This technique has worked well for me during cell extractions on much larger dudes with my previous employer so I have a fair degree of confidence in it.

I would bet this is an area that, in general, Corrections training is better suited for reality than Patrol training is.

[Trooper224]

My old agency does. But, it's taught in the academy then maybe an hour at annual inservice every other year. So, it's essentially worthless.

[Utm]

We stress the importance of the 2 officer takedown in our inservice. We do 1 upper body 1 lower body. Initiating officer ties up the upper body and second officer grabs 2 legs or 1 if that's all that's available.

[LukeNCMX]

We stress the importance of the 2 officer takedown in our inservice. We do 1 upper body 1 lower body. Initiating officer ties up the upper body and second officer grabs 2 legs or 1 if that's all that's available.

This technique works really well.

[Horseman]

No.

But all manner of "de-escalation", "mental health crisis intervention", and "bias in policing" training is available and mandated.

It's what people wanted, right?

Meanwhile, the "polyester pig-pile" still rules the day when someone really doesn't want to go to jail and resists all efforts at diverse, equitable, vibrant, community-based policing.

[kobuksonhwacha]

I would bet this is an area that, in general, Corrections training is better suited for reality than Patrol training is.

If only most correctional agencies would provide any sort of meaningful entry-level training to their people, much less send them to an academy (mine did not)...

[JHC]

I don't know much in the way of details but a friend joined our sheriff's department in his 40's just a few years ago. It sounded like their combatives was pretty vigorous, so much so it included full bore padded fighting and boxing. So much so he broke a bone in his hand hammering somebody. He's a solid dude. Nobody would want to fight that guy.

[Erick Gelhaus]

In '91, not terribly long after an event involving a "motorist," I was at the LAPD academy for tactics class with a bit of shooting. Worked into that was a few hours of team swarming to take people down.

My office occasionally taught something like that over the years. When you have a few seconds to assign roles, it can work. Harder to pull off if people are arriving over time - unless someone clearly sees the opening.

[Robert Mitchum]

We were taught to work in teams doing cell extractions, escorts riot control and some medical.
Force on force was an Everday occurrence.at a City Jail I started at.
I was lucky to have for the most part worked with good Brass who had your back if used combative skills that you knew from the Street on the job.