Published: April 26, 2008 11:51 pm            

ACSO gets self-defense training

PALESTINE — Two Saturdays each month, about 20 members of the Anderson County Sheriff’s Office meet at Steve Warren’s martial arts studio in Palestine for a little “off duty” get-together.

The objective?

To learn self-defense tactics to better protect themselves, their community, and even the person who might be threatening their personal safety.

Elective or mandatory?

“It’s like missing work,” Anderson County sheriff’s deputy Jason Chapman said without a hint of a smile. “You’ve got to go. You’re expected to be there.”

Anderson County Sheriff Greg Taylor said all of his agency’s patrol officers and tactical team members are participating in the year-long program which began in February.

Other sheriff’s employees are voluntarily coming to the sessions, he added.

“When we go to a disturbance or a bar fight,” Taylor noted, “we’re not dealing with people who are happy or nice at that particular moment.”

Taylor and other officers say the program not only improves their ability to defend themselves and others, but is a positive in other ways such as developing a higher level of physical fitness and a greater degree of camaraderie.

“Only good things can come from the training,” said Chapman, who is a certified personal trainer for law enforcement personnel. “It’s going to reduce injuries to the officers. It’s going to reduce sick time. It raises your mood. There’s a lot of good things that will come from it.

“The self-defense training, obviously in our particular line of work, is vital,” Chapman continued. “We have to be able...to defend ourselves, our partners and the public at large.”

When Taylor announced the program, some officers were not particularly receptive to the idea, but many have come around as they have started to experience the benefits.

“They’re pushed to their own body limits,” the sheriff said. “We’re not going to make them do something they can’t do.”

“Some times people aren’t receptive to something new,” Jay Russell, a sergeant investigator with the sheriff’s office, said. “I think it’s turned into a positive for our department and it’s actually become something fun.”

At 62, Mike Calcote is among the oldest deputies at the Anderson County Sheriff’s Office. His law enforcement career has spanned 30 years. Like most officers, he would rather use his voice than his hands to get a problem under control.

“As the old saying goes, ‘I’m more of a lover than a fighter,’” Calcote stated. “I try to resolve the situation by talking to them.”

Occasionally, however, things escalate and other measures have to be utilized. It is just the nature of the job, he added.

“Sometimes people decide they don’t want to go easily,” Calcote said, “and you have to use physical force.”

The officers stressed, however, that the techniques taught by Warren are not assaultive.

“The less force used, the quicker it’s resolved, the better,” Taylor said. “It’s merely — in a nutshell — to help my officers defend themselves.”

“Our main goal is for everybody to go home safe tonight at the end of the shift,” Calcote said.

“The key word is defense tactics,” Russell added. “It’s not like these are assault tactics.”

Russell said the officers are being taught the “Haganah” self-defense system which is based on both Israeli martial arts and military tactics.

The classes also help officers achieve some level of physical fitness as it incorporates pushups, situps, squats and other similar exercises, according to Taylor.

Officers also get to train alongside their co-workers in a different environment than the workplace which often helps develop camaraderie and foster greater trust.

“It’s a peace of mind thing too,” Russell said. “We know what people’s limitations are.”

The training is being paid for through a state grant, but Warren, who is also an Anderson County reserve sheriff’s deputy, is only charging the agency $1,300 for the year-long program.

“I would like to see it continue as long as we have the money and someone like Steve to teach it,” Taylor said. “It can’t do anything but help us.”

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Paul Stone may be contacted via e-mail at pstone@palestineherald.com

        

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