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The Control/Defensive Tactics Program: A Security Management Perspective
Pat Kane
My background covers 38 years in security management and law enforcement (as a police officer), and I have an extensive background in the martial arts.
For 16 years, I was the director of security for a large, commercial entertainment complex containing a themed amusement park, water theme park, professional sports stadium, restaurants, bars, retail facilities, light industrial and manufacturing. These facilities serve over 2 million patrons per year.
The incidence of arrest was high, averaging approximately 1,200 each year. The great majority of these arrests involved fights, assaults, strong-arm robberies and other offenses requiring the eventual control and restraint of subjects.
The security department totaled 75 commissioned officers. During the first four years of operation, all personnel were trained in a modified karate program primarily utilizing striking techniques with hands and feet. While the program was effective in bringing combative subjects under control, it was also effective in producing nearly 100 civil actions for excessive force, battery, physical injuries and property damage.
Beginning in the fifth year of operation, a change was made to the National Law Enforcement Training Center Control/Defensive Tactics, Lateral Vascular Neck Restraint, and Handgun Retention programs. During the next 12 years, while the level of arrest activities continued unabated, all combative suspects were brought under quick control without a single injury to either the suspect or the officer(s) involved. Not a single civil action was filed during this time pertaining to use of force. These programs are still used by this private company today.
I continue to use these training courses with my current employer, who operates nearly 80 retail establishments in several states throughout the Midwest.
I most highly recommend these reasonable use of force programs, certified exclusively through the National Law Enforcement Training Center in Kansas City, Missouri.
I find the NLETC systems to be the best use of force training that I?ve ever seen or used because they work in real life situations, every day, without injury to officers or subjects and without any litigation.
Pat Kane
Director of Loss Prevention
Westlake ACE Hardware
Lenexa, KS
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