"Train for the fight of your life!"
Viewer Discretion Advised
Video depicts real-life deadly force encounters involving knife attacks
THE NEED FOR KNIFE DEFENSE TRAINING
According to the FBI's LEOKA statistics, approximately 1,000 law enforcement officers are assaulted with a knife or other cutting instrument every year in the United States; with many of those assaults resulting in permanent injury and sometimes death. This statistic does not include the number of correctional officers and security officers that are injured or killed each year by knives or other cutting instruments. This is why agencies should invest in providing ongoing empty-hand knife defense training to their officers. Unfortunately in the United States, empty-hand knife defense is one of the most neglected skill sets in which officers receive training. The naïve delusion that carrying a handgun negates the need for empty-hand knife defense skills has permeated American policing and the security industry to the detriment of far too many officers. Administrators and training officers need only to visit the OFFICER DOWN MEMORIAL PAGE to see the many law enforcement officers and correctional officers that have been killed by stabbings over the years in the United States.
Knife attacks occur in close proximity and often without warning. Every arrest requires officers to place themselves within cutting distance. Officers unskilled in empty-hand techniques for evading knife attacks have a significant disadvantage in the fight for survival. As illustrated in the videos below showing an incident that took place in San Diego in 2022, even static situations involving suspects armed with a knife can quickly become dynamic. No matter how many backup officers are available, when the plan fails and less lethal tools fail, officers are forced to rely on their individual empty-hand skills to avoid getting stabbed before they can create enough distance to utilize their firearm.
"Given today's environment, rather than draw back on edged-weapon training, officers and agencies should be expanding it."
- Dr. Bill Lewinski
Force Science Research Center
KEEP YOUR COOL
In addition to increasing an officer's ability to survive a knife attack, this training also increases an officer's confidence and ability to remain calm to better de-escalate potentially combative persons armed with a knife. This substantially decreases the frequency of use of force incidents for officers and their agencies as well as the likelihood that deadly force is used when it is not yet needed. Officers attending this training are far less likely to panic and prematurely shoot someone armed with a knife when it may not yet be justified.
Take the examples below for instance. In the first video, the officer performing the knife disarm demonstrates a high level of empty-hand skill that is attainable with consistent practice. Officers cannot achieve this level of proficiency by only attending their department's annual, "check-the-box" use of force training each year, which unfortunately is the norm for most law enforcement officers.
The second video, unfortunately, is yet another countless example of an officer losing both his cool and his career due to a lack knife defense training.
Viewer Discretion Advised
Video depicts real-life deadly force encounters.