Bare Essential First Responder’s Self-defense Training

(BE-FiRST)

Weapons Retention for Law-enforcement Officers

By L Rivera

Introduction

“The defining characteristic of a warrior is the willingness to close with the enemy.”

Some may say this quote is fine for Soldiers and Law-enforcement personnel, but not for your every day individual. Reality is that first responders are anything but everyday individuals. First responders are disciplined warriors, people that go out into the field under the worst of conditions and put themselves in dangerous situations to assist others. And it is the author’s believe that with the proper training these individuals can develop the necessary skills—psychological and physical—to confidently confront and overcome the threat of violence directed against them.

First responders areMilitary service members, local police, firefighters, medical emergency personnel and community volunteers who are always ready to respond to dire situations, readily available to save lives and diminish casualties. First responders may arrive at the scene of extremely uncharacteristic events, such as natural, or manmade disasters ranging from bombings, commercial plane accidents, train wrecks, hotel fires, chemical spills, environmental damages, civil disturbances and blackouts/brownouts, to acts of terrorism of epic proportions, such as the attack of September 11, 2001, and the Sarin attack against the Tokyo subway system in Japan. Nevertheless, these heroes are also exposed to acts of violence from the same people they are trying to protect.

The purpose of this series of articles is to provide first responders with tactics techniques and procedures (TTP’S) and a set of skills that can be usedto protect against violence situations. This first article is directed atLaw-enforcement personnel. Law officers enforce the laws and maintain order and in doing so, they engagein dangerous situations such as servicing high-risk warrants, and felony arrests; operations that often take place in restricted spaces; congested areas with a combination of suspects and innocent civilians. Said situations may require the administration of force in order to gain control. Sometimes this force takes the form of hand-to-hand combat.

There are strict guidelines that law officers must follow when using force; Force should be used in only the minimum amount needed to achieve a legitimate purpose. The New York Police Department has five stages set through which the use of force can progress. 1) Verbal persuasion, 2) unarmed physical force, 3) force using non-lethal weapons, 4) force using impact weapons, 5) deadly force.

The degree of force used by the officer is influenced by the level of the threat encountered. For this reason awareness is the key to assessing the level of the threat; law officers must keep a sharp lookout for objects such as, firearms, explosives, edge weapons and improvised weapons that may be available to a suspect. Although some of these weapons have limitations, in the hands of a trained criminal can be lethal. In addition, there is always the officer’s weapon, which a determined criminal is likely to try to take possession of, if he or she sees the window of opportunity.

The following are some techniques associated with weapons retention:

  1. Front attack while standing:

/ / As the attacker reaches for the weapon. Grab the arm just below the elbow. Slide both hands towards his wrist and hand. Move slightly forward and establish a base. Secure the arm, begin striking. Maintain control of the subject while looking out for other bad-guys
Grab the assailants arm and slide both hands towards his wrist and hand. / step in the direction of the pull and push him away. / draw the weapon and keep a look out for other bad-guys
  1. Reacting to rear attack while standing.

The most important thing to remember is that when attacked from the rear, one must go with the flow. However, going with the flow doesn’t mean that you have to fall backwards—leaning backwards excessively will leave one without a solid base and consequently the technique will have little or no leverage. The base, however, is going to be limited by the restricted space. Therefore, in order to have a good enough base one must step to the rear with one foot, and bend at the knees rather than just spreading the legs into a horse stance like position.

/ / As soon as contact is made grab both wrists—whilesimultaneously forming a solid base by stepping towards the assailant with the firing foot.
Bend forward at the waist, while continuing to move behind the assailant. Here one may apply an arm lock, or any other control technique.
One may also push the assailant away and draw the weapon while looking out for other potential threats.
  1. Reacting to a side attack while standing.

/ When attacked from the side, grab the assailants arm, follow his lead and flow keeping control of his hands and wrist.
Step towards the assailants back with your non-shooting leg—move behind him—while simultaneously applying a modify headlock and force the assailant to the ground.
All efforts must be made not to go to the ground with him; however, if one do go down, one must keep control of the weapon, push and stand up, step away from the assailants’ danger zone and draw the weapon. Keeping a lookout for other bad-guys
  1. Reacting to a front attack while on the ground 1.
  1. Reacting to a front attack while on the ground.

The arm bar. This technique is very effective when the opponent uses both hands to gain control of the weapon. / Grab the assailants’ arms, push his face away from you and bring the non-shooting leg over his head / Once the arm-bar is applied push up with the hips for more leverage