Title
A Resolution of the City Commission of Coral Gables, supporting the expansion of defensive tactics training for Coral Gables police officers and Police Department personnel.
(Sponsored by Commissioner Fors)
Body
The nature of police work can call upon officers to employ defensive tactics to restrain persons or protect themselves and others from physical attack. Often defensive tactics must be employed without the use of a lethal weapon. In such scenarios, police officers are required to rely on their training and skills to assess the situation and handle it swiftly and appropriately.
Training in defensive tactics without the use of lethal weapons involves developing physical fitness, self-confidence, humane use of intermediate weapons such as the baton, self-protection skills, and psychomotor skills. It is commonly understood and generally accepted that persons apply skills more effectively in real-life scenarios when they have practiced said skills with frequency. Following that logic, officers who more frequently train in defensive tactics styles such as Jiu Jitsu, wrestling, Judo, and others, may be less likely to injure themselves and suspects during a combative encounter and less likely to use intermediate or lethal weapons because of their training.
Since the 1990s, the City has required an element of defensive tactics training as part of the annual mandatory trainings police officers are required to complete since. Expanding defensive tactics training opportunities would be beneficial to the Police Department by improving officers’ ability to safely and effectively engage in control and escape techniques, grappling techniques, and physical control and survival tactics, among other skills. It may also be beneficial to offer such trainings to civilian personnel such as Neighborhood Safety Aides.
In the age of the internet, increased video footage of police officers employing defensive tactics ineffectively or unsuccessfully in the field, some...
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