Every year more and more Animal Service Officers get attacked by irresponsible pet owners. When the owner fails to properly train their pet or keep them in their yards, their pets can attack innocent people. This is when your Officers get called in to restore order, ensure safety, issue citations, and possibly remove the animals.

This increase in calls and the worsening economic outlook has made your job in public safety more dangerous. As this occurred in Brevard County, Captain Robert Brown made the decision to protect his officers. He contacted me because I am the lead Defensive Tactics instructor for the local police academy and the lead instructor for the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office. Captain Brown wanted me to design a basic self defense class that would teach his officers how to survive a physical confrontation physically and legally.

This course covers:

• Florida State Statute 776.012 the right to self defense
• Defining how force is reviewed when it comes to the law
• “Objective Reasonableness” the legal standard in the use of force
• The most common attacks
• How to neutralize these attacks
• Defending yourself while moving to your vehicle
• Recognizing the verbal and non verbal cues of aggression
• How defend yourself on the ground
• How to use your equipment to aide in your self defense
• Retaining your Catch Pole when trying to control an animal
• Weapons of opportunity and other self defense weapons
• How to articulate the force you use to limit liability

This course is designed for those officers who may find themselves in violent encounters, but have not receive training in defensive tactics or self defense. This training is not considered part of their jobs. I disagree. If you deal with the public, and have to issue a citation or remove an animal, possibly being attacked is a very real part of your job.

The most common question I am asked when asked by non Law Enforcement agencies is:

What liability does the agency take on if we offer this training? The answer is NONE. Without this training, your officers will do whatever they can to defend themselves. This may result in inappropriate techniques or responses. In this case, your agency may be liable for not providing training. By providing this training, your officers will learn street proven techniques, they will learn what response is appropriate in a given circumstance, and the will learn how to document the incident to limit liability to themselves and the agency.