The Manteca Police Department in Northern California becomes the newest agency to add Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu to their tool kit.
Manteca Police Sgt. Joshua Sweeten noted, “The FBI’s come out with recent statistics that, in upwards of the 90th-percentile range, that a confrontation will end up on the ground.”
They will be learning under Gracie Survival Tactics, the only Jiu-Jitsu program that has been certified for police in California.
Rener Gracie spoke on the program, “All the techniques have been adapted for the law enforcement consideration that need to be brought into the equation: weapon retention, handcuffing, multiple attackers potentially, confined spaces.”
These skills are essential to the quality of success of the Manteca Police Department, as they see about 6-7 use of force complaints per quarter.
Gracie continued, “When police officers get better training like we have in Manteca, their use-of-force intensity will go down, and they will be closer to a point where the expectation from the public and the capabilities of law enforcement will be closer to matching… Naturally, officers are going to revert the tools that are on their tool belt, the physical tools — whether that be pepper spray, taser, a baton, a firearm — and they’re going to resort to those very quickly, because there are no empty hand skills being taught.”
