Update to cop tactics urged
Martial arts coach offers training
One of the world’s premier mixed-martial arts coaches told the Law Enforcement Academy Board on Tuesday he thinks the state should update subject control and defensive tactics curriculum for police officers statewide, which he said would actually reduce injuries to suspects and police officers.
Greg Jackson, the co-owner of Jackson Wink MMA Academy in Albuquerque, said during an LEA board meeting that he’s spent years training law enforcement agencies and military personnel on hand-to-hand combat techniques. And he’d volunteer to help update the curriculum and offer training opportunities at no charge.
The LEA board is tasked with approving curriculum for officers throughout the state.
While MMA can be a dangerous sport, Jackson said updating some hand-to-hand combat training for police would lead to less violence.
“Were not trying to hit somebody or knock them out,” he said. “You take control of someone.”
Jackson said sometimes multiple officers find themselves battling with a resistant suspect, which he said can lead to “dog piles” where officers are pulling and striking a suspect in a disorganized and potentially dangerous situation.
“Once you get into a dog piling situation where everybody is fighting each other ... one guy is pulling this way, one’s pulling that way,” he said. “Officers get frustrated and scared. Stuff can go down from there quickly.”
Jackson said giving officers better grappling skills can help officers work together to more efficiently take someone into custody.
And Jackson knows a thing or two about grappling. Some of his fighters have been considered some of the best in the world at times, including Jon Jones, Georges St. Pierre and Albuquerque-native Holly Holm.
“What (Jackson is) talking about is giving officers in the field options,” said New Mexico State Police Chief Pete Kassetas, a member of the board. “I look at what (he is) proposing .. as a way of de-escalation instead of having to go to guns or Tasers.”
Jackson last year met with members of the independent monitoring team overseeing Albuquerque police reform. Jackson said he’s been working with Albuquerque police dating back to 1995, and he met with monitoring team members to make sure anything he was teaching police was in compliance with a settlement agreement between the city and the Department of Justice, which aims to correct a pattern of excessive force within APD.
“We made sure all the techniques ... in there were compliant with the Department of Justice,” he said.
Attorney General Hector Balderas, the chair of the LEA board, welcomed Jackson’s training. Jackson offered to help update some curriculum for officers and also said he’d offer training and demonstrations at his Albuquerque gym free of charge.
“It’s going to make officers safer and the community safer,” Balderas said. “It makes sense to partner with one of the greatest MMA trainers in the world.”