Photo By Cpl. James Sauter | Cpl. Britt Foster, a Provost Marshal’s Office canine handler and native of Lubbock,...... read more read more
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MARINE CORPS BASE HAWAII - As the sun climbed higher into the sky and humidity made the air hot and sticky, more than 40 Marines and civilian police officers from the Marine Corps Base Hawaii Provost Marshal’s Office conducted force protection training at PMO field, Jan. 29.
The force protection training focused on assertively and safely arresting a suspect and using batons in a non-lethal situation.
Charles Smith, the lead instructor, first demonstrated how to approach and handcuff a suspect who was laying on the ground.
Another demonstration focused on arresting a standing suspect. Smith also incorporated different hand and arm manipulations to make the suspect compliant.
“This class is an annual requirement to update the students' knowledge of defensive tactics, so they know how to utilize the escalation of force levels,” Smith said. “This not meant to be aggressive or combative training, but instead to focus on how the officers can defend themselves during an arrest.”
After observing the first pair of demonstrations, students divided into pairs of two to practice the techniques. During the practice, Cpl. Charles Robertson, a canine handler and native of Davenport, Iowa, pretended to arrest his partner and fellow canine handler, Cpl. Britt Foster. He verbalized commands, directing the suspect to kneel, lay on his stomach, look away from the direction the officer approached him, and place his hands on the small of his back.
During the mock arrest, Robertson verbally iterated every command to Foster to ensure every step was completed safely. The partners switched roles and repeated the mock arrest before moving on to another demonstration.
“It’s really nice to be able to perform the arrest and then feel what it’s like to be arrested,” Robertson said. “You never know what the person on the ground is going through unless you’ve been on the ‘other side of the law.’ As military police Marines, we have to experience things like being sprayed with gas or hit with a Taser before we can do it to someone else.”
During the next stage of the class, non-lethal weapons instructors taught basic techniques for subduing an attacker with a baton. The instructors demonstrated how to gain maximum effectiveness with a baton by striking a pad in specific places resembling vital body regions.
“The instructor course is two weeks long and teaches us how to use batons, stun grenades and acoustic systems,” said Cpl. Cole Sorensen, a PMO patrolman and native of Salt Lake City. “The most rewarding part of the course was learning how to teach others these techniques and how they can meet the lethal situation with a non-lethal option.”
For the baton practice application, Robertson again paired with Foster. Foster held a body pad while Robertson struck the pad with a training baton made of light plastic and foam, allowing him to practice striking an aggressor in the chest or across a side of the head to subdue or incapacitate him.
“The reason we keep refreshing ourselves in these skill sets is to make them second nature for when we go out and do our jobs,” said Foster, a native of Lubbock, Texas. “Hopefully, we’ll never have to use these techniques on an actual person, but they’re beneficial to anyone who is faced with a situation that escalates.”
| Date Taken: | 02.01.2013 |
| Date Posted: | 02.01.2013 18:43 |
| Story ID: | 101379 |
| Location: | MARINE CORPS BASE HAWAII, HI, US |
| Web Views: | 139 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, PMO Marines, civilians train with non-lethal weapons, by Cpl James Sauter, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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