I think I have attended at last count, 5 or 6 of your courses courses. All courses emphasized some sort of suspect control training. The technique that has been most beneficial for me is the basic head tip. The best thing about this technique was that it was almost effortless. I've used it in numerous situations and it has always worked as advertised.

There are two situations that immediately come to mind:

#1 Bar Fight:
Officers respond to a bar fight at one of the local drinking establishments. Suspect flees on foot, later found walking through parking lot. Officer has suspect at gun point, ordering him to prone out. Suspect squares off on officer with hands raised but stays in a stationary position.

I arrive, put light in suspect's face, move in and utilize head tip from the side. There was absolutely no resistance from the suspect as he quickly went from vertical to horizontal position. Impacted the ground with enough force to stun suspect. This made control and handcuffing of suspect easy.

Suspect later informed me that he did not know what happened after the "bright light" was put in his eyes, only that he hit the ground and was taken into custody. Suspect was fairly intoxicated at time of contact, resulting in his refusal to obey verbal commands.

#2 Domestic Violence Assault:
Officers arrive on scene of DV Assault. Suspect is a large, heavily muscled male who has beaten victim numerous times. Suspect is highly intoxicated and angry.

Two officers move in to handcuff suspect, who is talking to third officer. Suspect hears officer behind him snap the handcuff case as officer takes cuffs out. Suspect immediately tenses up. Cuffing officer grabs right hand and attempts to handcuff. Suspect begins shaking officer around like rag doll. Officer two grabs left arm, attempts to apply some sort of finger lock. Suspect laughs at him as he pulls hand away.

We now have three folks struggling on a third floor landing of an apartment complex. Needless to say, space is limited. I was inside the apartment speaking with the victim when the fight began. I come outside and see both officers getting tossed around as they try to hang onto suspect's arms and hands. Third officer, that was outside initially is some what blocked on the stairwell by the other officers and is having a hard time getting into the fight.

I'm able to move up the middle and use a frontal head tip. Again, this technique works well but due to space issues, we don't go straight to the ground. Instead, suspect strikes head on neighbors door. This works out alright as it stuns suspect enough to reapply head tip, this time taking him all the way to the ground. The only other problem I encountered was that the two other officers were still trying to hold on to the suspect. This minimized the impact onto the landing but it still worked well enough to take suspect into custody without officers or suspect sustaining any injuries.

These techniques are principle based, easy to learn and easy to apply. All my officers have been shown the basic head tipping drills and have utilized them on numerous occasions.

In closing, I whole heatedly support the information that Ken has been putting out regarding suspect contact and control issues. I highly recommend that any officer interested in improving their defensive tactics skills attend any of the upcoming courses offered. Respectfully submitted,

Sgt. Eric Hamry
Metro Pierce SRT