OLYPHANT, Pa. — It's not your traditional self-defense class at Gracie NEPA Grappling Club in Olyphant. Police officers and state troopers are honing their skills when faced with a combative person.
Maj. Michael Carroll with the Pennsylvania State Police helped coordinate this event. Maj. Carroll says law enforcement agencies are seeing a need for more training, including self-defense.
"We find that officers that are well trained are more professional and more disciplined when they are in a chaotic situation," said Maj. Carroll.
"It cuts down on injuries to the officer, it cuts down on injury to the suspect, and it cuts down on any kind of legal repercussions that may happen down the road," said Scranton Detective Jason Hyler.
Jeff Reese is the head instructor. He teaches traditional self-defense classes, where people are trained to fight back. Police don't have that option, so they are learning techniques to get someone into cuffs quickly and safely.
"It arms them with techniques that are perfectly applicable in a street scenario, that are humane and safe for both officer and subject," Reese said.
Law enforcement officers never know what kind of situation they are walking into, so it's not only important to their physical skills but also their mental skills.
"You work more on your verbal judo skills, as they call it, trying to de-escalate a situation before it gets to a physical confrontation," said Maj. Carroll.
There may only be 16 participants in this week-long course, but the training will benefit many others.
"They are certified to go back and instruct the other officers of their department the different disciplines that they learned here in the class," said Maj. Carroll.