| Despite tremendous personal risk thousands of | | | | sports like judo, karate, and kendo and benefit |
| brave men and women join the ranks of law | | | | greatly from the combat conditioning they |
| enforcement every year. While most of the | | | | receive. Police officers need explosive power and |
| general public claims to support men and women | | | | functional strength to have an edge in street |
| in uniform, for the most part it is little more than | | | | fighting [ Combat self defense training has been |
| talk. | | | | watered down, leaving officers to rely on |
| Police officers have to deal with everything from | | | | technology and brute force. The average street |
| irate citizens to terrorists, and any number of | | | | cop has more equipment at his or her disposal |
| strange and violent incidents which no other civilian | | | | than ever before, but that isn't necessarily a good |
| occupation encounters. Millions are spent to train | | | | thing. |
| police officers, but they still don't receive the | | | | Marksmanship is another area of police training |
| expert training that they need. Weapons and | | | | that is neglected. While many officers know how |
| combat martial arts training have been cut to | | | | to shoot, they aren't prepared for an actual gun |
| reduce budgets and to make room for | | | | battle. In order to survive a firefight an officer |
| "sensitivity" training. This lack of training has | | | | needs to be trained for combat, not competition |
| resulted in an increased level violence in our | | | | shooting. Close combat expert Colonel Rex |
| streets, and increased criticism of the police. | | | | Applegate analyzed data from police shootings in |
| Police officers deserve our respect, and they also | | | | the decades following World War II and found |
| deserve better training. It isn't necessary to | | | | that police officers missed their intended target |
| spend millions doing research, though; techniques | | | | eighty percent of the time. According to recent |
| have already been developed through the | | | | studies officers are doing even worse, with |
| research and hard work of others. Over sixty | | | | criminals shooting slightly better. |
| years ago, William E. Fairbairn and his associate | | | | The methods that helped win WWII and keep the |
| Eric Anthony Sykes patrolled the streets of | | | | peace can help police officers again today. Those |
| Shanghai, the toughest city on the planet; in order | | | | who put on the uniform and take the oath to |
| to survive they developed their own close | | | | become police officers are a special breed, but |
| combat techniques for police officers. They | | | | you don't have to be one of them to know that |
| modified these practical, easy-to-learn self | | | | things need to change. While those in leadership |
| defense techniques for the military, and in WWII | | | | positions often just throw money at the problem |
| used them to train Special Forces personnel and | | | | and hope it goes away, they should rather try |
| secret agents. | | | | something useful and encourage their local law |
| The slogan "Don't let your training end at the | | | | enforcement to re-stress the fundamentals. As |
| academy door" is good advice, but few seem to | | | | police officers better understand how to do their |
| heed it. Police departments have high physical | | | | jobs, they will develop stronger and more positive |
| standards for a new recruit, but with the | | | | relationships with the community. Police officers |
| exception of a few elite units, there are almost | | | | are warriors for justice, and like all warriors their |
| no requirements for officers once they're on the | | | | training must be continuous. |
| job. In Japan police officers take part in combat | | | | |