Dan Rubin

David

Thank you for your response. I wasn’t personally offended by your earlier post. I think that the tone of that post seemed so different from your usual ones that I was startled by it.

I agree with you about officers who believe in the easy fix. The most blame is on police administrators, who buy that line and adopt such strategies for their departments. The administrators believe what they want to believe, and they provide their officers with an excuse to do the same.

The PR-24 side-handle baton was first marketed as a baton that could not be swung against a suspect’s head, and police administrators everywhere cried, “Sign me up!” They and Rodney King were shocked to learn the truth.

There are still defensive tactics systems that claim to teach effective techniques using only the officer’s natural instinctive movements. Wouldn’t that be wonderful? Almost no training necessary. You’d be out of business!

You’re right, these are delusions.

And I agree with you and Kevin about the importance of high-level training, but the fact is that when lists are made of A+ police officers, arrest and control skills are not given much importance. This is true whether the lists are made by the public or by police administrators or by other officers.

Keep up the good work. You and Chris and George Ledyard and others (when I was an officer, I was a long-time student of Bob Koga) are trying to improve the world of arrest and control skills, and few endeavors can be more frustrating. I salute you all for that.

Dan