Week Four: Tasers, Cuffs, Kicks and Punches

The Citizen's Police Academy met at the Fox Point Police Department Thursday for defense and arrest tactics training.

Sgt. Doug Dubnicka led the training, showing us how to properly handcuff suspects. This process is not as simple as just "slapping on the cuffs." You grab the suspect's dominant hand first, turning the key to release them from the cuffs takes particular right-left-right twists to release, and there is even a special lock to keep the cuffs from continuing to tighten.

Dubnicka also explained basic martial arts punches and kicks that officers sometimes use in defense against an attacking suspect. As you can see in the photos, students were paired up with one person holding a torso-sized, padded, blue kickboard. The idea was to make a quick punch to the top, thumb up, and then follow that with a swift, full-body punch to the diaphram. The idea is to faze the attacker with the hit to the face, then temporarily reduce the threat with the strong hit to the diaphram, knocking the wind from their lungs.

We were given a show-and-tell presentation of some of the firearms that officers use, including hand guns, pepper spray, Tasers, batons, rifles and semi-automatic guns.