PREPARATION: Use of Force and Self-Defense
/By Lt. Robert Centkowski
2020 was a crazy year by all accounts. Police officers have had to deal with a national COVID pandemic that put a strain on officer’s health as well as on manpower. If this was a normal year, that in itself would have been a lot to deal with. Well it was 2020 and that was just the beginning.
On May 25, The Minneapolis Police Department responded to a counterfeit $20 bill call at a deli. In this incident captured on video, George Floyd is on the pavement with officer Derek Chauvins’ knee on his neck. These nine minutes would set back all the hard work and professionalism 99% of us officers have been doing, igniting nationwide protests and a new call to “defund the police.
NJ Advanced Media conducted a six-month investigation of the use of force incidents involving New Jersey officers from 2012 to 2016 and found a reported 70,405 incidents. The average officer will be involved in approximately four use of force incidents a year. In NJ we receive a block of defensive tactics training in the Police Academy, but for most officers that will be the last time in their career they will receive this form of training.
To Chief Michael Foligno of the Elmwood Park Police Department this just was not enough. He is a 31-year veteran of law enforcement who has been chief for the past seven years. He was an accomplished wrestler and has over 25 years of coaching experience, including coaching for the NCAA Division 3 wrestling team at Delaware Valley University. He continues his own training at Tiger Shulmann’s Martial Arts. While training, he met Jimmie Rivera. Jimmie Rivera is currently ranked within the top 10 of the UFC’s Bantamweight Division; Jimmie holds the record for the best takedown defense accuracy in UFC history and has been practicing martial arts for over 20 years.
While training together, the two often discussed police work and the lack of defensive training offers receive. Chief Foligno is very community policing-oriented and understands that a trained confident officer is a benefit to the safety of the community, the safety of the officer involved, and even the safety of the person being detained.
This, along with Jimmie Rivera’s respect for law enforcement and the work we do sparked the beginning of a program that they developed to provide often-neglected training of defensive tactics. Each class is 90 minutes long and is broken down into three parts. After a quick warmup, officers begin the jib jets portion of the training. The officer learns how to escape from chokes and life-threatening holds, learns how to perform and defend from takedowns and learns the art of gaining control from the bottom and top positions on the ground. All the techniques are developed with the presence of the officer’s duty weapon in mind.
The second portion of this class focuses on defending from strikes on your feet. This involves bag strikes and learning defensive and effective counters to a stand-up attack.
The last part of the training involves calisthenics which helps in the officer’s fitness which is also key to his overall safety and health. The main point of this training is to provide officers with the confidence in their ability to defend themselves in a use of force situation.
We all do a lot of training in many aspects of our jobs, from domestic violence to firearms qualifications. Defensive tactics has been often overlooked. We focus on use of force guidelines that point out the things we are not allowed to do but neglect providing an officer with training and practice of useful techniques to keep us safe. This program is designed for that lack of training and strictly adheres to the Attorney General Guidelines surrounding use of force.
Officers of the Elmwood Park Police Department, for example, are expected to attend three of these classes at a minimum monthly. The program began in August 2020. Most officers have experienced positive changes in both physical fitness as well a greater confidence in their own abilities.
The opportunity to work with a professional like Jimmie Rivera is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. He takes his time to go over the moves slowly and takes time with each officer to help adjust their technique. He puts his heart into the curriculum, and his respect for law enforcement and the work we do is apparent in the time he dedicates to our department. All of this while training for his career and upcoming fights in the UFC. So in an age where the term “defund the police” has grown in popularity, it’s great to see as an officer that there are still people who care about our safety. We are provided many tools on the job from, OC spray, Tasers, to a firearm, so why not provide officers with one of the most important tools we can, the training and confidence in our own skills to protect ourselves and the community.
